Severe vandalism in Pelican Park impacts service to residents

24 March 2021

The City of Cape Town is alarmed at the level of electricity infrastructure vandalism and theft that has taken place in Pelican Park and in other hotspot areas in recent weeks. The City will continue to do its very best to provide basic service delivery to communities, but the scourge of electricity vandalism is concerning and we urge the public to take ownership by helping us protect infrastructure and reporting illegal activities to the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the City.

The scourge of electricity infrastructure damage and theft in Pelican Park and in areas across the metro has had an enormous impact on services and service delivery to our residents and communities. In the Pelican Park area alone, more than 100 street lights were damaged and will cost the City more than R200 000 to repair.
 
In recent months, criminals and syndicates have also targeted streetlights in Jakes Gerwel Drive and Strandfontein Road, severely impacting the service to residents and road users in the surrounding areas. We urge residents to help us bring an end to these actions by reporting any suspicious activities to the SAPS or to the City.

 
The SAPS remains the lead authority in crime prevention.

The City continues to monitor the situation in Pelican Park and the hotspot areas. Security patrols will continue so that infrastructure can be protected. However, given the varying demands on our staff, it is not possible to have a dedicated presence at all hotspots all of the time. The City also continues with its underground cabling programme across the metro.
 
‘We’ve seen a spike in theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure in Pelican Park recently and it is unacceptable that residents and the community must suffer. As soon as electricity teams attend to and repair the damaged infrastructure, it is vandalised and damaged shortly after the repairs have taken place. The City strongly condemns this trend and we ask residents to take ownership and report these illegal activities. Fixing the same vandalised or damaged infrastructure is definitely not sustainable. Our teams can also only attend to outages if it is safe to do so. We thank our communities for their support,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change, Councillor Phindile Maxiti.

R5 000 reward offered
The City offers a reward of R5 000 to anyone who provides information that leads to arrest, confiscation of stolen or illegal goods or the handing-in of illegal or stolen goods. This reward is also applicable to information leading to the arrest of people vandalising, damaging or stealing electricity infrastructure or installing illegal connections. Tampering, theft and vandalism of essential electricity infrastructure, is seen as a priority crime, and as per Section 2 of the Criminal Matters Amendment Act (Act 18 0f 2015), imprisonment not exceeding 30 years and fines not exceeding R100 million is possible, when found guilty. Electricity theft is often driven by well-oiled criminal syndicates, which operate across communities.
 
Report damage to municipal electrical infrastructure:
SMS: 31220
Email: power@capetown.gov.za

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office