City of Cape Town implements measures to combat ‘loadshedding-related vandalism’
The City of Cape Town has implemented new interventions to curb ‘extreme and unprecedented levels of load-shedding-related vandalism’, as well as to mitigate damages to power infrastructure brought by loadshedding in the Area South. The Area South includes Mitchells Plain, Gugulethu, Wynberg and Philippi. Also read: Loadshedding schedule: update today In a media statement released by the City of Cape... Read more → The post City of Cape Town implements measures to combat ‘loadshedding-related vandalism’ appeared first on CapeTown ETC.
The City of Cape Town has implemented new interventions to curb ‘extreme and unprecedented levels of load-shedding-related vandalism’, as well as to mitigate damages to power infrastructure brought by loadshedding in the Area South.
The Area South includes Mitchells Plain, Gugulethu, Wynberg and Philippi.
Also read: Loadshedding schedule: update today
In a media statement released by the City of Cape Town on 27 February 2024, the City has prioritised service requests, due to ‘high volumes’ of ‘crisis-levels of vandalism’ that are made worse by loadshedding.
This in turn causes the teams to be working in an ‘abnormal environment’ that can impact turnaround times.
Factors that classifies a service request as a high priority is as follows:
- Area outages that impact large areas, which includes ‘stretches of streetlights’. These are viewed as ‘complex faults’, as they often require teams to search for kilometeres the cause of the outage. Vandalism is considered a ‘major headache’, as vandalised infrastructure required to be sourced from elsewhere and replaced.
- Power supply to an individual property.
- Single streetlight outages that need to be attended to, if resources are available.
Affected Areas
From January 2023 to 13 February 2024 in the Area South, Mitchells Plain, Gugulethu, Wynberg and Muizenberg were affected by loadshedding-related vandalism and damage to infrastructure.
Mitchells Plain was considered a ‘metro vandalism hotspot’ with 31% of their 10 291 fault requests in this timeframe having been ‘repeated vandalised infrastructure like poles and theft’.
Out of Gugulethu’s 7 402 fault requests, 25% were of a similar nature, as well as 10% of Wynberg’s 8 096 fault requests. Finally, Muizenberg had 4 154 fault requests, from which 15% pertained to ‘repeated vandalised infrastructure and theft’.
Other intervention methods that are currently being implemented and continued to combat the current situation include:
- Private security patrols
- Dedicated Law Enforcement Unit for Energy
- Alternative lighting solutions for un-electrifiable communities
- Capacitating neighbourhood watch groups
- Hi-Tech solutions under investigation
- Opening satellite equipment stores for faster replacement of infrastructure
- Appointing new public lighting contractors
- Operational changes to the escalation of requests
- Appointment of more artisans
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