Johannesburg - Power utility, Eskom, has pleaded with Gauteng residents to join forces with it in fighting against the scourge of theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure.
Through a statement released on Thursday, the power utility said it was concerned with the increase in incidents of theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure across the Gauteng province.
According to Eskom, these criminal acts had not only resulted in the loss of revenue and increased replacement costs for the utility, but also resulted in customers being left without electricity supply for prolonged periods.
In one instance, Eskom reported that its technicians had to work around the clock to repair and restore supply to the remaining parts of Drumblade and Walkerville in the Vaal, following an extended outage in the area.
The outage, according to the utility, was caused by cable theft and vandalism at the Goldview substation on Wednesday.
In another incident which saw parts of Buccleuch and Waterfall in Johannesburg without power supply for five days, criminals targeted the oil from the transformer of the Randburg substation.
“We have put controls in place to enhance the existing measures, to try and eliminate and guard against theft and vandalism of our infrastructure as it affects the livelihoods of our customers,” said Maintenance and Operations Senior Manager in Gauteng, Mashangu Xivambu.
Xivambu further explained that the utility conducted risk assessments to classify and identify hot spot areas and placed static guards strategically at these sites, with armed response also roped in to patrol the areas at interval periods.
“Eskom cannot win this fight alone, we partner and collaborate with community members, community security companies, business forums, community policing forums, police and public order police to try and reduce incidents of theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure. We appeal to those communities who are yet to get on board to join forces with us in the battle as this scourge affects all of us,” he said.
The Star