Cape Town - The City of Cape Town’s energy directorate has set aside approximately R40 million for efforts to fight against rampant vandalism of critical energy infrastructure in local communities across the metro.
Energy Mayco member Beverley van Reenen announced the multimillion-rand budget and said that following its approval as part of the department’s 2022/23 budget, it would be coming into effect in July 2022.
Van Reenen said this was one of the City’s planned initiatives to boost its efforts to curb the scourge of vandalism.
“There has been a downward trend in the number of acts of vandalism, thefts and illegal connection incidents in some areas due to enhanced support from members of the public and the City’s efforts. However, the overall number, as well as recurring incidents in the city, remains high.
“Incidents of electricity infrastructure vandalism continue to be recorded in all areas in the metro, including damage to street lights. Damage to street lights and kiosks is among the most frequent.
“These continuous illegal acts are plaguing our communities and together with residents, we are determined to bring an end to infrastructure vandalism.”
Van Reenen said the R40 million injection will focus on securing critical infrastructure in all communities, enabling security patrols in hot spot areas and permanent security deployments to strategic energy infrastructure.
“The department will also be embarking on a vandalism awareness and education drive in our communities to ensure that residents have a greater understanding of the impact and cost of vandalism in their areas. We call on our communities to stand by us and to work with us to help protect community infrastructure,” said Van Reenen.
Earlier this year, as a result of vandalism, the City lost one of its officials, Terence Henry Stringer, who suffered severe injuries when severely vandalised cables exploded while he was attending to an outage in Gugulethu.
Stringer’s death was one of the violent incidents recorded by the department following numerous attacks on City Electricity staff in local communities.
Last month, the City again condemned attacks and intimidation of its staff and contractors while on duty in communities after officials were attacked while carrying out repair work in the Philippi farm area and Valhalla Park.
