Cape Town - The City has recorded 201 incidents of vandalism and illegal connections, with Mitchells Plain and Philippi being identified as hot spots.
Mayco member for energy Councillor Beverley van Reenen said the records were for the third quarter.
“The Mitchells Plain/Philippi district was the worst-affected district, with 85 recorded incidents. The most vandalism and electricity theft incidents occurred in September 2023, with 81 recorded for Area South, 27 for Area North and 18 for Area East.
“While we are seeing a decrease in vandalism incidents in many areas, it is alarming to note the increase of vandalism in Area South, particularly the Mitchells Plain district.
“The Mitchells Plain district includes not only areas within Mitchells Plain but areas outside of the region such as Lotus River, Grassy Park and Philippi. All these areas are hot spots for vandalism and illegal connections.
“Approximately R4 million has been spent on the repair and replacement of damaged infrastructure in the last three months and, sadly, many of the incidents are reoccurring where the same infrastructure is vandalised.
“In Philippi and the surrounding areas, for example, we are seeing a number of these recurring incidents taking place. Our teams carry out regular illegal connection disconnections in the area and will continue to monitor hot spots.”
She said that in the Muizenberg, Mowbray, Helderberg, Bloemhof and Atlantis districts, the City had recorded fewer than five incidents each for these areas in the past three months.
“Let’s act. Let’s stand up and stand together so we can bring these criminals to book,” Van Reenen said.
“Vandalism hot spots are monitored as far as possible. Help us keep the lights on by reporting all suspicious behaviour near our infrastructure. Single street-light outages or faults are attended to within 14 days and faults affecting multiple street lights are attended to within 48 hours, where possible,” she said.
