cape town power outage

The City of Cape Town announced an eight-hour power outage. Image: Pixabay.

Cape Town: New illegal connections and vandalism hotspots revealed

The City of Cape Town has revealed new hotspots for illegal connections and vandalism after a spate of power outages in parts of the City.

cape town power outage

The City of Cape Town announced an eight-hour power outage. Image: Pixabay.

The City of Cape Town has revealed that vandalism and illegal connections are the root cause of its recent spate of power outages. 

Recently, residents in Gordons Bay, Strand and Somerset West were without electricity for a whole weekend due to vandalism at the Lourensrivier Substation.

ELECTRICITY VANDALISM HOTSPOTS IN CAPE TOWN 

The City of Cape Town said in February 2022, the most incidents of electricity vandalism and illegal connections that were recorded occurred in the metro’s Area North in areas such as Hanover Park, Heideveld, Athlone and Manenberg as well as in Atlantis and the central city areas of Woodstock and along Philip Kgosana Drive.

In Area South, Mitchells Plain recorded the most number of incidents. Streetlights and electrical kiosks were the most vandalised infrastructure.

MMC for Energy, Beverley van Reenen said in February 2022 almost R1 million was recorded in damage from vandalism and illegal connections. 

Van Reenen said the City is trying to keep Cape Town lit but vandalism, theft and illegal connections cause a lot of damage and unnecessary power outages. 

“These actions drain our resources from much-needed maintenance and upgrading work and places the City’s capital programme at risk. A million rand would rather have been spent on expanding service delivery, as in many cases, sadly, as soon as the City fixes or replaces vandalised infrastructure, it is vandalised again. 

“There are some shifting trends visible, such as the number of incidents in Area North, and also a move of incidents of theft and vandalism into the more formal metro areas.”

City of Cape Town MMC for Energy

Van Reenen said the City often leaves streetlights on in some cases to deter vandals. Where lights are out due to vandalism, the City fixes it. 

“Sadly, often as soon as lights have been fixed, they are vandalised again. The City does deploy security and monitor hotspot areas where possible, but we rely on our communities to alert us and to help us protect community infrastructure,” she said.

ALSO READ: Cape Town: Strand, Somerset set for weekend without electricity after cable theft