A strong message was conveyed to those vandalising and stealing city infrastructure, which comes at a heavy cost to ratepayers and other residents.
Following the torching of a Wallacedene sewer pump station earlier this month, local City councillors last week called that the search for the arsonists be intensified and charges of aggravated theft be added to the charge sheet.
City councillor Rhynhardt Bresler who serves on the City’s safety and security portfolio, requested that leaflets offering the City’s R5 000 reward for information be distributed by hand to residents within the Wallacedene community to help bring to book the perpetrators.
Bresler also requested that charges of theft of infrastructure in accordance with the Amended Criminal Matters Act 18 be added to the docket, if applicable in this instance.
In terms of this legislation perpetrators of vandalism and theft of essential infrastructure when found guilty will receive heavier jail sentences.
“The City can no longer tolerate theft and damage of infrastructure and a strong message needs to be sent out,” Bresler said at a meeting of Subcouncil 2 on Thursday.
According to the latest numbers the northern district of the city, with 40% of incidents, is worst affected by vandalism.
In a security report tabled on the same day the events on the night of Saturday 7 May was outlined.
According to the report a group of men carrying tyres and petrol arrived at the pump station and demanded the security guards let them in.
When the guards refused they threatened to throw petrol bombs and stone them. Fearing for their lives they opened the gates.
After wrecking the electrical and mechanical equipment in the pump station the men using the tyres and petrol set the building on fire and fled the scene.
The attack resulted in sewer overflows and flooding at the pump station and the sewer network throughout Wallacedene.
According to the report, bystanders witnessed the attack that came right after the City removed illegal electricity connections in one of the informal settlement camps established during the land invasions last year.
Some 25 000 households settled in three separate camps on the City-owned land that was earmarked for housing development.
EFF councillor Belelani Mei said that he visited the area in the days after the attack where community members expressed their unhappiness about the City removing the electricity connections.
“People don’t have electricity and because of this they are negative and it is going to take us back to darkness. We need to work with something to avoid this chaos,” he said.
To this, City councillor Grant Twigg responded by saying that it was not “normal for people to behave like this”.
“You cannot go and break and burn things if you don’t get what you ask for, especially if it is illegal electricity connections,” Twigg said.
The total amount of damages done to the sewer pump station is still unknown and costs to fully repair it can run into hundreds of thousands.
Temporarily running on a generator the City is awaiting a transformer from Eskom to fully repair the facility.
