Transformers can cost the municipality approximately R10 million and purchasing a new one can take up to eight months.
This is just one of the headaches that the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has to deal with since there has recently been another surge in vandalism and theft of municipal infrastructure.
According to municipal spokesperson, Mthubanzi Mniki, in most of these cases of vandalism at substations across the metro, the theft of transformers, cables and electricity infrastructure is the most common.
Most recently, a break-in and vandalism were reported at the Motherwell main sub-station, that led to a power outage in the area. As if this were not enough, the community hall in Motherwell NU30 that had been continually vandalised and stripped over the past three months, suffered even further damage when it was set alight.
“Both the NU29 and NU30 halls have been vandalised. Community halls and multi-purpose centres are a critical component of service delivery. Usually councillors’ offices are accommodated at these centres.
“Community meetings, events and other health, fitness and sporting activities are also done at these centres,” Mniki said.
Ward Councillor, Morgan Tshaka, said that the community hall in NU29 used to be a multi-purpose centre with a gym and facilities for various sports, but now everything had been stolen and vandalised.
“They stole the roof, bricks and windows. It looks like a building that had been demolished and all of this took place throughout lockdown,” Tshaka said.
He explained that the community hall in NU30 had been set alight twice already and where it usually happens during protests, this time it was simply because of thuggery, he exclaimed.
“Apart from being burned down, my office used to be there and they stole my computers and everything. The other day I received a phone call about smoke coming from the building and when I arrived there, I saw wood in the corner of the floor.
“It appears that some teenagers were either making a fire to get warm or they smoked something in there,” he said.
Tshaka mentioned that the impact this has had on the community was immense, especially on the elderly.
“We are here to deliver a service to the community but now most people can’t get a hold of me.
“That is why I go to the taxi rank every morning and to the hall in case someone needs assistance,” he said.
According to Mniki, the street lights in Stanford Road were vandalised all over again, days after being fixed.
“This left the busy road dark and dangerous to walk and drive on. Cables were stolen and some of the bulbs broken. All of these occurrences have a direct negative impact on service delivery,” he explained.
“Vandalism negatively impacts on the development of the metro, as funds have to be diverted over and over to fix the damage caused by these criminals.
“The metro is also losing millions of rands per month as a result of ongoing vandalism and theft of copper bars and earthing straps at electricity substations.
“The metro is pleading with Nelson Mandela Bay residents to help guard and pay closer attention to what is going on around our sub-stations.”
MMC for corporate services and member of the anti-vandalism steering committee, Annette Lovemore, said the bottom line was that vandalism was a crime.
“We take it exceptionally seriously when services to our residents are interrupted because thieves have broken into electrical sub-stations or vandalised a water pump station,” Lovemore said.
“We take it very seriously that we have to spend our ratepayers’ money and our time repairing damage when we should be moving forward, delivering services.
“We are making regular arrests and with the help of vigilant citizens who report suspicious behaviour around our infrastructure, we simply must win this fight,” she emphasised.
