Joburg appeals to residents to help stop cable thieves

The councillor in charge of environment and infrastructure services at the City of Johannesburg, Michael Sun, on Wednesday called on residents to help prevent theft and vandalism of the city’s infrastructure.

According to the municipality, cable theft continued at alarmingly high levels during the festive season, especially after the flooding at the beginning of December.

City Power continues to battle rampant cable theft in Roodepoort, with 17 incidents reported in the past week. 

Last year more than 200 JoJo water storage tanks, provided by Johannesburg Water to communities to supply areas without formal services, were either stolen or vandalised.

“This situation breaks my heart, cable theft and infrastructure vandalism is killing service delivery across the country. We need communities to work with us this year to ensure we put an immediate stop to this plague,” said Sun.

His department has started an initiative to work with neighbourhood watches and other groups to help safeguard City Power’s electricity grid, but cable theft remains rampant.

“Though our efforts with City Power have helped put 147 cable thieves behind bars in the last six months of 2022 — almost double the amount compared to the previous 12-month period — cable theft is still far too high, with instances occurring daily,” Sun said.

“This year we are going to redouble our efforts and ensure City Power works in tandem with law enforcement agencies and shoulder to shoulder with communities to extinguish this horrendous crime against lives, livelihoods and our national stability.”

City Power is crafting an emergency plan to deal with cable theft, which will include adding to its security budget that already stands at more than R100m.

Joburg Water is also revising its approach to the deployment of water tankers. The entity deploys or installs JoJo Tanks in communities as a last resort when tapped water isn't available. However, the service is under threat from the high rate of theft.

“Information about incidents of cable thieves and vandals, or JoJo tanks disappearing or being damaged, is seldom shared by the communities in which they occur.

“This is why I am appealing to every single Joburger to not sit back and watch our valuable infrastructure being stolen or vandalised, only to enrich the criminals living among us. If you see or hear something, report it. Information can be supplied anonymously too. Your city needs your help,” he said.  

To report cable theft to City Power, use any of these 24-hour hotlines: 011 490 7900; 011 490 7911; 011 490 7553. Alternatively, WhatsApp 083 579 4497.

To report vandalism or theft of Joburg Water infrastructure use this anonymous line: 0800 002 587

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