Load-shedding, increased vandalism and theft have a damaging impact on our electricity infrastructure
Earlier today, Eskom announced load-shedding has been increased to Stage 4 until Thursday. This comes after the national power utility had already implemented various stages of load-shedding for several days.
As we previously communicated, increased levels of load-shedding means that rolling blackouts will affect all regions of Tshwane two to three times a day. Load-shedding in general has a negative impact on our infrastructure and electricity network, which were never designed to be continuously turned on and off as a result of Eskom implementing prolonged load-shedding.
The City has also noticed a concerning trend where our electricity network is being deliberately targeted during load-shedding by criminals who are looking to either steal or vandalise our infrastructure. We have had a spike of vandalism targeting our substations across Tshwane on almost a daily basis. Residents should be aware that cable theft and damages to our substations are hindering our ability to provide stable power supply in the city.
We are exploring new security technology to protect our infrastructure and we are also working with the Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) to prevent and respond faster to incidents of infrastructure vandalism. However, the reality is that we need your help as residents: We need more eyes on the ground and this means reporting to authorities when you spot suspicious activity around our infrastructure.
The City would also like to appeal to our neighbourhood watches, security companies and community policing forums to assist us to catch these criminals where possible. We cannot allow damage to our infrastructure to continue unabated. Working together, we must push back and fight these criminals lawfully.
To report suspicious activity, please contact our TMPD 24-hour line on 012 358 7095/7096 or contact our Cable Theft Hotline on 012 358 7095 or 080 011 2722.