When Gustav Rautenbach, DA spokesperson for safety and security for the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, was unable to get hold of various municipal officials via email and telephonically since June, he began investigating the matter and discovered that the communication tower at the Malabar Reservoir in Gqeberha was not working.
After conducting a site visit to the reservoir on September 18, alongside Ward 10 councillor, Lenny Moodley, they discovered that copper cables connected to the communication tower at the reservoir had been stolen, while a knife and bolt cutter were left at the scene.
Rautenbach indicated that a reliable source had informed him that the copper cables were stolen three months before their site visit, and that a large rock was removed alongside the boundary wall of the reservoir while construction work took place next to the reservoir.
With the removal of the rock, he believes that the suspects were allegedly able to access the reservoir to steal the copper cables.
As a result, Rautenbach said that the vandalism of the copper cables had caused a breakdown in the communication network located at the reservoir, which he alleges had affected the communication network of various departments within the municipality.
Rautenbach said,
He said that departments that have been affected by vandalism at the communication tower include the Metro Police Office in South End, the Traffic Department in Sidwell, Korsten, Kariega, and Motherwell, and the Department of Water and Sanitation.
He said that during their site visit in September, there was no security officer on site and that there was one CCTV camera on site; however, he suspects that the camera was non-functional.
In addition to this, Rautenbach believes that the control box to the electricity fencing was vandalised, rendering the electricity fence out of order.
To get to the bottom of the issue, he said that on September 21 he sent a query to the office of the acting executive director of safety and security about the vandalism at the reservoir.
Rautenbach further said that he received a reply to his email indicating that he would get a response by October 3; however, he has still not received any feedback on the matter.
Moodley said that he only recently learned that a major communication tower was located at the reservoir which affected the communication of the municipality.
“I was surprised to learn that such an important communication tower was at our local reservoir,” said Moodley.
He further said that after putting pressure on the municipality for some time, an official inspector from the municipality visited the reservoir on October 9, and indicated that they planned to install cameras on the site soon.
Rautenbach, who is a member of the municipality’s safety and security committee, said that the committee met on May 5.
He said that the committee was meant to meet again in June, but with the change in local government at the end of May, the meeting was rescheduled.
Since then, Rautenbach said that the committee has not had any meetings for over five months.
He said that at the next meeting, which is yet to be scheduled, he plans to table various issues of safety and security which include vandalism, and the placement of CCTV cameras at municipal-owned buildings and infrastructure.
After sending a media query to the municipality on October 16, PE Express had not received feedback at the time of going to print on October 23.
