The City of Cape Town has set aside about R40-million to curb the vandalism of critical energy infrastructure sites. Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Beverley van Reenen, says the money will go towards employing permanent security.

“Incidents of vandalism continue to be recorded in all areas in the metro, including damage to streetlights. These continuous illegal acts are plaguing our communities. The R40 million injection will focus on securing critical infrastructure in all communities, boosting security patrols in hotspot areas and permanent security deployments to strategic energy infrastructure.”

In January, the City said there has been a spike in vandalism of its electricity infrastructure in the Paarden Eiland area over the past few months.

Van Reenen said multiple sub-stations had been targeted, causing substantial damage to infrastructure.

Van Reenen said repairs and replacement of the infrastructure cost the city millions each year.

“We absolutely condemn these acts and are committed to improving the security at our infrastructure. Patrols to the area will be increased and additional fencing installed at the affected sub-stations. We appeal to residents to assist us by reporting any suspicious activities near electricity infrastructure to both the South African Police Service and the City so that we can bring an end to infrastructure theft and vandalism,”  Van Reenen said at the time.

In December, there was a massive power outage that hit large parts of the City of Cape Town. Several parts of the CBD, Woodstock and areas along the Atlantic Seaboard were affected.

Source: SABC News