Ratepayers burdened by vandalism and theft of municipal assets

Municipalities face huge challenges with regard to vandalism and theft, and the City of Tshwane is no exception. Over the past years, cable theft and vandalism of the City’s infrastructure have become a liability and created a huge bill to fix those assets.

Vandalism of municipal infrastructure has a negative effect on the City and its residents, because it prevents the City from providing services and causes interruptions in the delivery of electricity and water to residents and businesses. The City incurs enormous costs to repair or replace vandalised infrastructure. As a result, funds that were meant to be used for restoring the dignity of residents by providing new water and electricity connections, fixing potholes, installing street lights, building RDP houses and maintaining roads must now be used to repair or replace vandalised and stolen infrastructure.

The people responsible for these acts of vandalism live within the borders of Tshwane. The City therefore appeals to the community to participate in fixing this problem and bringing the perpetrators to book by reporting vandalism and theft of municipal assets.

Since the establishment of its Cable Theft Unit in October 2016, the City has made several arrests in areas such as Hammanskraal, Soshanguve, Villieria and Pretoria West. Perpetrators were arrested for transgressions like possession of suspected stolen goods, tampering with essential municipal infrastructure, attempted cable theft, damage to municipal infrastructure, and theft of precious material.

The City has now set its sights on scrapyard dealers who buy stolen municipal assets.

The community at large can join forces with law enforcement agencies and the City to fight vandalism by becoming the municipality’s eyes and ears and reporting such acts at 012 358 7095/6 or 10111.