Officials are sending out a call to action following the vandalising of electricity substations in Mitchells Plain.
Residents in neighbourhoods across the metro are often best placed to observe any suspicious activity near critical substations, says the City of Cape Town, noting an alarming trend is the targeting of electricity substations by criminals, which leads to extended outage periods for larger areas.
The City’s Mayco member for energy, Xanthea Limberg, recently joined electricity teams in Weltevreden Valley attending to a vandalised substation which had led to loss of supply for households across the area.
Electrical substations are part and parcel of neighbourhoods, with private properties often abutting the substations. This means that local residents offer the best first-line surveillance of spotting any suspicious and criminal activity that will impact electricity supply.
“The damage to substations is particularly concerning to us as more residents are impacted for a longer period of time while repairs are effected. The scale of repairs required impacts the turnaround time as multiple pieces of equipment need to be replaced or large infrastructure must be procured,” she says.
Over the less than three months from September to beginning December, 35 cases of infrastructure vandalism in the Mitchells Plain area were reported to police. “We encourage our residents to be on the lookout for any unmarked vehicles parked close to substations or any suspicious-looking individual hanging around electrical infrastructure and to please alert the authorities. Most of our substations are in neighbourhoods close to homes and we ask our residents to be our eyes and ears on the ground. Only by working together can we protect our power and hit back at the criminals targeting our infrastructure,” says Limberg.
Report suspicious behaviour to the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre on 021 480 7700.
