By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Eskom says theft and vandalism of infrastructure has risen to disastrous levels, threatening essential services and lives in Gauteng.
“Eskom has reported concerning levels of damage to its network, such as transformers and substations, leading to prolonged outages to customers, including essential services,” it said.
On Wednesday (15 February ), the electricity supply to Rand Water in the City of Ekurhuleni was affected due to the vandalism of insulators at the Mapleton line, putting essential water supply at risk for the residents of Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Lesedi, Govan Mbeki and Thembisile Hani Local Municipalities.
“The vandalism and theft have extended to include pylons whose tower members are often stolen by unscrupulous criminal elements, resulting in the steel structures collapsing and posing extreme danger to members of the public,” it said.
In addition to disrupting critical processes, Eskom said that vandalism and theft of infrastructure also come at a great financial loss to the company, which is forced to replace the same at significant and unsustainable costs, further threatening its liquidity and mandate to provide electricity.
The group called on the public at large to assist in fighting against the criminal elements and to become “the eyes and ears” of the electricity supplier.
Eskom noted that three men appeared before the Roodepoort Magistrate Court in January 2023 after being arrested on a tip-off by community members for being in possession of pylon tower members valued at R25,000.
“This was a result of working together with the community members and other stakeholders,” it said.
The power utility is under siege by criminal elements, from within and without its operations. While power station operations have been hit by high-level fraud and theft by criminal syndicates – who steal diesel and replace good coal with discarded coal – common criminals are also stripping public infrastructure during blackouts.
Eskom has adopted several new strategies to combat crime at its own operations, including a full screening and security sweep of all its active contracts and getting support from the South African National Defence Force that has been deployed at its power stations.
However, to tackle wider infrastructure crime, it is turning to the public at large for aid.
The power utility appealed to the public to partner with it in reducing electricity-related criminal activities by reporting illegal connections, theft, and vandalism of electricity infrastructure to the Eskom crime line number: 0800 112 722.