By Becker Semela:
The power utility in Mangaung Metro Municipality, CENTLEC, is facing a serious crisis with growing cable theft cases in the Mangaung area, especially the stealing of aerial service connection cables, commonly known as airdacs.
This problem continues to disrupt the electricity supply and cost the power utility millions of rands to repair and replace the damaged or stolen infrastructure unnecessarily.
According to CENTLEC acting spokesperson, Tseliso Leba, around 800 cable theft cases were reported in the past financial year, with many more going unreported or being mistaken for power faults. He said the theft has forced the utility to spend R1.5m just to replace the stolen cables. However, about 500 cases are still pending and will require an additional R2.5m to resolve.
“This is money that could have gone towards improving and upgrading our electrical infrastructure. Instead, we are forced to spend it on replacing stolen cables again and again. Many customers in Mangaung experience long delays in electricity restoration because the real cause of the outage is cable theft, which is not always reported immediately. This confusion slows down the repair process and causes frustration among residents,” Leba said.
He urged all customers to report any incidents of cable theft to the nearest police station. When reporting the theft to CENTLEC, residents must also bring along the police case number, an affidavit, a copy of their ID and the meter number. “To fight back against this ongoing problem, we implemented several measures, these include community education campaigns to raise awareness about the impact of cable theft and partnerships with Community Policing Forums (CPFs), Neighbourhood Watch groups, the police, private security companies and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)” said Leba.
He added that the utility has also increased security patrols in hotspot areas and deployed special teams using kicker-poles (tall poles) to lift air-dac cables higher, making them harder to reach and steal.
“We have also appointed private contractors to help speed up the reconnection of stolen cables. Customers are asked to be patient as we work through the list of outstanding cases. The executive management and board of directors are committed to strengthening network security by recruiting more security personnel and improving visibility in problem areas.
We also remind the public that cable theft is a serious crime in South Africa, with those found guilty facing up to 30 years in prison. We appeal to our communities to work with us in protecting infrastructure that serves all of us. Together, we can stop cable theft,” Leba said. – @NewsSA_Online.
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