City Power has expressed grave concern about the vandalism of its infrastructure, especially in the Lenasia South (Region G) area.
It has also expressed its frustration at areas affected by illegal connections that are reconnected minutes after illegal connections are removed.
The utility is now roping in the help of the police to try to stop incidents of sabotage and vandalism of City Power infrastructure in key hotspots across the city.
In a recent incident at Unaville informal settlement, Lenasia South, electricity poles were torn down by criminals.
“It is not clear why this was done, but it is suspected that it was an act of retaliation after City Power cut off illegal connections that have been disrupting electricity supply to paying customers, including the Grasmere toll gate nearby,” said City Power chief executive Lerato Setshedi.
City Power has opened a case of damage to essential infrastructure in terms of the Criminal Matters Amendment Act (CMAA) with the police, and it has also increased plainclothes security in the area.
If found guilty, the CMAA imposes a maximum sentence of 30 years on those found guilty, he said.
“There is also theft of transformers in the same area. In the past eight months City Power has replaced about seven pole-mounted transformers in the same area, at a cost of R1.5million.
“We are also working with law enforcement agencies to ensure those responsible for this are apprehended. We should not allow lawlessness, and any efforts to interrupt the supply of electricity should be thwarted and rejected,” Setshedi said.
It had been months since a new informal settlement started on a farm in the area. The settlement had no formal electricity supply. As such, residents had decided to connect to the old line supplying nearby farms, added the chief executive.
The illegal cables had been dangerously connected to the low-voltage circuit.
“Some of the wires have even been connected directly onto the medium- voltage lines. The poor nature of these connections and the resultant overloading of the circuit results in nuisance trips and premature failures of pole transformers.
Most of the transformers supplying the area are new, as the old ones had failed prematurely due to illegal connections. Restoring power to the area has proved to be a futile exercise because as soon as it is back on, it trips again on overload.”
City Power teams that are dispatched to restore power to the area must first cut off these dangerous wires, but are normally prevented from doing so by informal settlement dwellers.
Removing illegal connections is also not a lasting solution as they are reconnected as soon as the teams leave.