New interventions to enhance energy services amid crisis-levels of vandalism in Area South

27 February 2024

Many innovative interventions are being investigated, while operational changes are under way to enhance service delivery and turnaround times where required and also to eradicate backlogs as fast as possible

Key messages

The crisis-levels of vandalism (made worse by load-shedding) and the damage caused by load-shedding means teams are operating in an abnormal environment that may unfortunately impact turnaround times.
Dedicated energy teams have implemented new interventions to help enhance service delivery.

Although circumstances may differ, the City prioritises service requests as follows due to high volumes:

1. Area outages impacting large areas, including stretches of streetlights. These are complex faults that often require teams to search for the cause of the outage for kilometres; including digging up roads and pavements to find the fault. Vandalism also is a major headache as the vandalised infrastructure needs to be sourced from elsewhere and replaced.

2. Power supply to an individual property.

3. Single streetlight outages attended to if resources become available.

‘Our energy teams are operating under abnormal circumstances. The extreme impact of load-shedding on our power infrastructure (that was not designed for load-shedding) as well as the contribution of load-shedding to the increase of theft and vandalism, have led to extremely negative impacts and backlogs of service requests, especially single streetlight outages. Many innovative interventions are being investigated, while operational changes are under way to enhance service delivery and turnaround times where required and also to eradicate backlogs as fast as possible. At the heart of this lies the unprecedented impact of load-shedding-driven vandalism and the impact on maintenance capabilities, costs and human resources. If we stand together as a City, with our communities, we can bring the change that will help to protect our community infrastructure and enhance service delivery,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Councillor Beverley van Reenen.

Area South at a glance (January 2023 to 13 February 2024)

• Mitchells Plain – metro vandalism hotspot

10 291 fault requests - 31% of these pertain to repeated vandalised infrastructure like poles and theft

• Gugulethu

7 402 fault requests – 25% pertain to repeated vandalised infrastructure and theft

• Wynberg

8 096 fault requests – 10% pertains to repeated vandalised infrastructure and theft

• Muizenberg

4 154 fault requests – 15% pertains to repeated vandalised infrastructure and theft

New interventions under way and continued

Private security patrols
Dedicated Law Enforcement Unit for Energy
Alternative lighting solutions for un-electrifiable communities
Capacitating neighbourhood watch groups
Hi-Tech solutions under investigation
Opening satellite equipment stores for faster replacement of infrastructure
Appointing new public lighting contractors
Operational changes to the escalation of requests
Appointment of more artisans

Let’s ACT and by reporting to the authorities we can make a difference

Report all suspicious activities at or near electricity infrastructure to the City’s law enforcement agencies or the City’s Fraud Hotline on 0800 1100 77 or to the SAPS. The SAPS remains the lead authority in crime prevention.

End

Note to broadcasters: an audio clip is available for download: https://bit.ly/4bMjn93

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office

vandalism electricity