Cape Town battles cable theft

Cable theft is draining the resources of Cape Town’s city electricity services and hampering efficiency in attending to other public electricity complaints.

There are more than 320,000 streetlights across the entire Cape Metropole, many of which have been or will be fitted with 70 watt energy-efficient light bulbs, said mayoral committee member for utility services Clive Justus.

“This is part of the city’s concerted efforts to conserve power, while at the same time dealing with the scourge of cable theft and vandalism,” he said.

Plagued by the widespread plundering of its substations and power lines, city electricity services had been forced to keep certain areas of streetlights burning during the day to help prevent and monitor the occurrence of cable theft.

“Under normal circumstances, there would be no justification for wasting power and we should all be diligently conserving this precious commodity. Unfortunately, the city is suffering from an unprecedented onslaught from cable thieves, most of whom are ‘tik’ addicts desperate for drug money,” Justus said.

“An effective deterrent is to keep the streetlights burning as thieves rarely risk their lives by hacking into live wires. Also, the cost of ‘energising’ a 350 metre stretch of ten 70 watt streetlights amounts to about R2.68 per day. On the other hand, the cost of replacing the same length of stolen cable and vandalised equipment amounts to about R38,500 per incident. This does not even take into consideration the inconvenience caused to residents, or the additional costs of welding down access covers and encasing underground cables in concrete to secure our equipment,” he said.

In another alternative to deter vandalism and theft of street lighting infrastructure, the city had installed high mast lighting at a cost of R150,000 per pole set, for example in Matroosfontein.

These masts were more expensive to install than conventional lighting, but were more vandal-proof.

“In suburbs that are relatively unaffected by cable theft, the city is able to use day night switches activated by photo sensors to automatically switch off in daylight. Power disruptions in these areas are usually caused by overloaded or defective circuit breakers, lamp failures or contact between tree branches and transmission lines. However, in ‘hot spots’ such as Bonteheuwel, Hanover Park, Gugulethu, Manenberg, Kalksteenfontein, Atlantis, the M5, Mitchells Plain, the Helderberg region and Vanguard Drive, and many other places—especially the Eskom supply areas—disruptions are invariably caused by cable theft.

“Bonteheuwel was vandalised so badly, there was almost nothing left to repair. Electricity services staff and contractors have been assaulted on site and the city’s trucks have been stripped by gangs in broad daylight,” Justus said.

Provincial roads, such as the N2 and Settlers Way, from Rondebosch to Somerset West, had also suffered major blackouts as a result of cable theft.

“Cable theft is draining the resources of city electricity services and hampering our efficiency in attending to other public electricity complaints.”

The city’s dedicated cable theft task team, known as the Copperheads, championed by councillor Sheval Arendse, was working around the clock to catch and prosecute perpetrators.