| More than R7,3 m to repair electricity theft, vandalism damage – R4,2 m on streetlights alone | <p>‘I’ve been inspecting sites where we are repairing damaged electrical infrastructure and streetlights in particular across the metro to evaluate the interventions the City have put in place to tackle the scourge of theft and vandalism. The latest data shows a total of 242 theft and vandalism incidents reported with estimated costs of repairs amounting to R7,3 million. <br></p><div>‘Theft and vandalism impacting streetlights comprises the majority of the repair costs of R4,2 million as public lighting is an easy target due to easy access for criminals damaging the infrastructure to perform illegal activities. Again, Area South, especially Mitchells Plain, has been the most impacted with 153 or 70% of the total incidents of 242 happening in this area. Due to this crisis situation many interventions are being driven both to enable energy teams to fix streetlights faster but also to reduce the risks of the crisis-levels of theft and vandalism. <br></div><p><br></p><span><figure class="subtopic-fullsize-img"><img class="responsive" src="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/Media%20Images%202/xQgNfdhk.jpeg" alt="" /></figure></span>‘Between 31 July and 13 August 2024, City energy teams attended to 5 810 streetlight-related requests across the metro, bringing the total attended to in a month to more than 13 210. The City services more than 245 000 streetlights in total.<p><span></span><br></p><span><figure class="subtopic-fullsize-img"><img class="responsive" src="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/Media%20Images%202/DSC_3635.jpg" alt="" style="width:1037px;" /></figure></span><div>‘We need our residents to stand with us to Protect Their Power. We’ve launched our anonymous tip off campaign called Let’s ACT – Protect Your Power – urging residents to report suspicious activity to us. We will take action. We’ve put more boots on the ground with contracting services and also through our Energy Safety Teams, beefing up resources with about R40 million to tackle this crisis. We’ve added more security escorts to help our teams attend to outages caused by theft and illegal connections. We’ve also looked holistically at this situation, replacing the copper material with aluminium where possible to reduce the street value, rolling out more and more underground cabling where feasible, increasing CCTV monitoring and looking at more innovative solutions that will be rolled out in the near future. </div><div><br></div><div>‘We are also embarking on enhanced community cooperation engagements, education and awareness drives, because we are absolutely committed to safer and brighter communities,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Alderman Xanthea Limberg.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Total theft, vandalism incidents 242 (May – June)</strong></div><div><strong>•</strong><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span><strong>Area South: 171 (70,6% of total) </strong></div><div><strong>•</strong><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span><strong>Area North: 36 </strong></div><div><strong>•</strong><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span><strong>Area East: 35 </strong></div><div><strong>*Reflects data received from most of the depots. </strong></div><div><br></div><div><strong>Let’s ACT: Protect Your Power</strong></div><div><strong>Report suspicious behaviour to the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre: 021 480 7700 </strong></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><strong>End</strong><br></div><p><span></span><br></p> | 2024-08-23T22:00:00Z | GP0|#1d539e44-7c8c-4646-887d-386dc1d95d70;L0|#01d539e44-7c8c-4646-887d-386dc1d95d70|City news;GTSet|#62efe227-07aa-45e7-944c-ceebacca891d | | | | | GP0|#dfdcb4f5-2ec2-4bd4-9a9f-3086ef5830a7;L0|#0dfdcb4f5-2ec2-4bd4-9a9f-3086ef5830a7|energy;GTSet|#2e3de6c1-9951-4747-8f53-470629a399bb;GP0|#fc0a19bf-6a9b-42af-bc90-8a0d4b9f4eac;L0|#0fc0a19bf-6a9b-42af-bc90-8a0d4b9f4eac|vandalism | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | 0 |
