Mitchells Plain streetlight repair plan set into action

28 April 2023

The City Energy Directorate’s plan to deal with outstanding streetlight repairs caused primarily by vandalism in the Mitchells Plain area is making steady progress. The City is dealing with a high volume of streetlight repair service requests and the situation is worsened by constant load-shedding and weather-related requests. This places a lot of pressure on the capacity of teams. Over recent months, the City has also seen an increase in electricity infrastructure repair service requests, primarily due to vandalism and theft during Eskom’s load-shedding. We thank our customers for understanding that we always do our very best under trying circumstances. 

More than 350 electricity infrastructure vandalism incidents have been recorded across the metro during the first quarter of the year. In March alone, 101 incidents were recorded with Area North being the worst affected. Mitchells Plain is the worst affected district with 30 recorded incidents. Beacon Valley, Lentegeur, Rocklands and Tafelsig are hotspot areas.

'More than 500 service requests are currently being attended to and our Electricity maintenance teams are working steadily through all repair and outage service requests. However, the City is prioritising all extended outage related area faults caused by load-shedding. This phenomenon is expected to get worse as the winter months take full hold and Eskom's load-shedding continues likely at high stages. The City thanks residents for their support and understanding while our teams attend to the work as quickly as humanly possible.

'In recent weeks, due to non-stop Eskom's load-shedding at higher stages, more incidents of infrastructure vandalism have taken place under the cover of darkness. In many instances where streetlight control boxes or kiosks are damaged, a number of streetlights are often impacted. Where severe theft and vandalism has taken place, turnaround times are often delayed due to the nature of the required repairs.

Plan of action

'We cannot allow this to continue any longer and we once again urge residents to join us in our fight against vandalism in our communities. The City is already carrying out an education and awareness drive and a number of initiatives to curb vandalism of critical electricity infrastructure. Our work is yielding positive results in the majority of areas in the metro but more needs to be done to fight this scourge.

'The City continues to monitor the metro's hotspots and we have boots on the ground to fight cable theft, vandalism and illegal connections. We appeal to all communities to be vigilant and to be the custodians of electricity infrastructure by reporting to the South African Police Service and the City,' said the Mayco Member for Energy, Councillor Beverley Van Reenen.

R40 million to help fight vandalism of energy infrastructure

This allocation is to support law enforcement deployment, enhance security at key points and increase monitoring. This does not include the millions of rand required to fix vandalised infrastructure.

Report damage to municipal electrical infrastructure:

• SMS: 31220

• Email: power@capetown.gov.za

Anonymous tip-offs welcomed

Reward of R5 000 if tip offs lead to arrests.

Call: 0800 1100 77

End

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office