Joburg south residents plagued by cable theft and vandalism
Joburg south residents have endured constant outages due to cable theft in Glenvista, with 14 outages at the Mulbarton substation since September 9.
Ward councillor Sarah Wissler said this was the substation which was supposedly upgraded at a cost of R90million.
Despite constant engagement with City Power and the responsible member of mayoral committee (MMC) Mpho Moerane, there has been no response from him nor end in sight, she said.
“I sympathise deeply with residents who suffer from these regular outages which impact on every aspect of their lives. With so many people working from home and children trying to catch up on a missed year of school, we cannot afford another day of downtime.
“Anyone can see that there is a pattern of cable theft in the area with street lights constantly being vandalized along Swartkoppies Road.”
City Power said these allegations were devoid of any truth and confirmed that 98% of Eldorado Park had an uninterrupted supply of electricity for a long time. In the week between October 19 and 23, the Lenasia depot experienced 12 medium voltage outages, and only two directly affected Eldos.
Said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena: “We also had an average of 150 low voltage calls a day, with less than 10% of those affecting Lenasia. While we acknowledge the challenges we have with regard to resources, we, however, ensured Eldos lights are kept on throughout.”
A burnt cable caused an outage in Utah Street on Wednesday. This was resolved on Friday.
“With regards to street lights in Union and Boundary roads, incidents of vandalism, theft of copper wire and metal occur to such an extent that it is no longer economical to repair street lights. Street lights in Union Road were repaired last week even though vandalism continued.
“Vandalism of street lights and cable theft contribute to almost 80% of our outages across the city and cost millions,” said Mangena.
-The Star
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