{"id":50909,"date":"2023-02-07T06:01:27","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T04:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/load-shedding-cable-theft-a-double-whammy-for-residents-in-athlone-20230207\/"},"modified":"2025-03-19T20:32:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T18:32:17","slug":"load-shedding-cable-theft-a-double-whammy-for-residents-in-athlone-20230207","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/load-shedding-cable-theft-a-double-whammy-for-residents-in-athlone-20230207\/","title":{"rendered":"Load shedding, cable theft a double whammy for residents in Athlone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the last week of January residents in Athlone and the surrounding areas had to endure a double whammy of blackouts, when electrical connectors were stolen twice from electricity boxes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Cape Town\u2019s electricity department was swift in restoring power and replacing the connectors, but the need to make the vulnerable electricity boxes and all electricity generating apparatus vandal-proof is imperative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Beverley van Reenen, a Mayco member for energy, there has been an increase in vandalism and illegal connections across the metro since 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHanover Park, Heideveld, Athlone, Manenberg, Atlantis, Woodstock and Mitchell\u2019s Plain are some of the hotspot areas in the city. Unfortunately, this often results in equipment damage and almost constant electricity outages in some areas, both in the City of Cape Town and Eskom-supplied areas,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Reenen also says illegal connections and damage to electricity infrastructure remain a challenge in the metro, as it often results in constant electricity outages for long periods in some areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe simply cannot allow this criminality to continue. Constant repairs of the same vandalised infrastructure (are) not feasible and place significant pressure on City resources and available stock to replace. This negatively impacts our residents, who experience outages and insufficient street lighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOngoing infrastructure vandalism and illegal connections remain a challenge across the city, with a steady increase as loadshedding intensifies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe City has attended to hundreds of faults in recent months and disconnects illegal connections to City infrastructure across the metro on a regular basis. We encourage community members to assist us in ending this scourge,\u201d Van Reenen says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City urges members of the public to report illegal activities to the police or the City\u2019s 107 emergency number. The police are the leading authority in crime prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re-occurring incidents continue to take place in hotspot areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between July and September last year, the City recorded 122 incidents of electricity vandalism and illegal connections in the metro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City has since embarked on enhanced initiatives, including earmarking approximately R40 million to help curb and prevent vandalising of critical energy infrastructure in communities. This is part of the approved 2022-\u201923 budget, which came into effect on Friday 1 July last year. In the 2021-\u201922 financial year, more than R50 million was spent on repairing and replacing damaged electricity infrastructure in areas across the metro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also outages resulting from secondary tripping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This happens when the electricity comes back on after loadshedding. Due to all load coming on at the same time in a particular pocket, the power often trips and shuts off again (cold load pick-up).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence one would experience this as power coming on, and a few minutes later, it is off. To help reduce the occurrence of this, residents are advised to switch off electrical appliances ahead of loadshedding to prevent all the electrical load from coming back at the same time and causing a surge of secondary outages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Report damage to municipal electrical infrastructure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n