Johannesburg - There’s a new crime-busting unit in town and it is aimed at putting an end to the economic sabotage of Joburg’s road and power infrastructure which costs the city over R6 million a year.
With 18 new Joburg metro police department (JMPD) officials and 10 vehicles, all dedicated to stopping the scourge of theft and vandalism of manhole covers, stormwater covers, road signs and bridge handrails, the new specialist unit was unveiled by the Joburg Roads Agency (JRA) on Thursday.
Since the 2013/14 financial year, the JRA has spent more than R250m in replacing and repairing damaged and stolen infrastructure.
The replacement costs for manhole covers alone is over R6m a year.
The new Infrastructure Protection Unit is a joint venture between the JRA, the JMPD and the SAPS.
Speaking at the launch, member of the mayoral committee for transport, Christine Walters, said the destruction of road and traffic infrastructure had a debilitating impact on the city's economy. “Broken traffic lights and stolen manhole covers have a cascading and multiplying impact on economic growth.
“It impacts on the movement of transport, on our ability to move people and products across the city, on the cost of consumer goods and, therefore, on the quality of life of every citizen,” she said.
The unit will focus on the big players: the dealers and syndicates that buy stolen cables or metal at rock-bottom prices from pedlars.
“We will work with organised business and labour with large companies and emerging enterprises, especially those involved in the scrap-metal value chain,” she said.
“With perpetrators now facing imprisonment of up to 30 years or fines of R100m, hopefully we will be able to make some progress.
“The creation of this offence emphasises its seriousness and ensures legislation is in place to regulate this adequately instead of having to rely on the offence of malicious damage to property’, which is often regarded as a minor offence,” she said.
Walters said vandalism and theft was largely seen as petty crime.
“From the intelligence we have gathered, it is far from petty theft. There are sophisticated syndicates involved.”
Another worrying aspect was the number of accidents being reported as a result of missing manhole covers or faulty lights.
“It is impacting directly on human lives,” she said.
Sean Phillips, the managing director of the JRA, said the initiative was also a partnership with the community of Joburg which was encouraged to report incidents of vandalism or theft to 011 375 5911 or e-mail [email protected] or via Twitter @myjra, or the JRA’s “find and fix” app. He also announced that by the end of June, every traffic light in the city would be remotely controlled, meaning traffic lights that were out would be instantly detected.
“The remote monitoring system will also enable the new unit to react quickly where such faults have been caused by theft or vandalism. The unit will co-ordinate efforts between the JRA and JMPD, as well as between the city and communities.
“It intends to work closely with communities to gather information about hotspots and the activities of theft syndicates,” he said.
This will assist the new unit by alerting them, and reacting quickly to where such faults have been caused.
To gather intelligence, the unit will patrol the streets, mainly hotspots, and engage with scrapyard owners and communities.
@annacox
The Star