Vandals and thieves have pillaged Buffalo City Metro (BCM) at a cost to taxpayers of R26m.
This is the price tag of the onslaught on infrastructure, according to a report to council.
The recent report by BCM’s acting head of infrastructure services, Zilindile Gijana, lists hundreds of incidents of theft of equipment and illegal electricity connections.
In the report, Gijana blamed the burgeoning illegal electricity “trade”, but the DA blamed the soaring youth unemployment rate and youth drug addiction, and the EFF said a syndicate had stepped in after the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), who had been temporarily employed to provide security at BCM properties, were not paid.
Gijana wrote that the continual trend of vandalism of infrastructure significantly affected BCM’s revenue, and warned that the scourge was increasing every year and had a significant affect on the metro’s ability to deliver services to residents.
In the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 financial years, BCM recorded 301 cases of vandalism of its electricity network. Twenty-one suspects were arrested in the period.
Gijana said in the report that some of the cable stolen was used to service the illegal electricity “trade”.
“Over the last year there has been a substantial increase in illegal connections, theft of equipment and vandalism (which is) impacting the level of service delivery being provided to the BCM customers, whereby some cable theft is being done to service the 'illegal electricity' trade. This continuing trend has impacted significantly on the municipality's revenue and will affect the continued electrical service to legal consumers ... the service will be running at a loss unless extreme action is taken to reduce the non-technical (criminal) losses.”
BCM's traffic lights have also come under attack with thieves and vandals rendering many dysfunctional for months since last year. Repairs had started recently.
DA councillor Terence Fritz blamed the soaring unemployment rate and drug abuse among the youth.
“The youth unemployment rate has increased, not only in the BCM but in the whole country. This results in some of the young people engaging in drugs, and to feed their habits, they get involved in criminal activities of stealing lucrative components made of copper and other equipment. Criminals have gone to the extent of stripping traffic lights off cables and this is not unique to BCM but in other cities and towns as well. It's a disgrace how this is escalating and not much is done about it.”
EFF councillor Mziyanda Hekiso said thugs played an insignificant role in the rampant theft of municipal property but added that officials were to blame.
“There's only one way to tackle this issue and that is to hire permanent security guards instead of outsourcing them. There's no security at all BCM sites. This is done deliberately so that those who get the tender for security get more money. The issue of the MKMVA veterans who were temporarily employed to look after the sites but were not paid, also plays a huge role in this vandalism and theft problem. If there is any syndicate, it's caused by the officials and those in charge in the municipality.”
In the 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years BCM recorded 54 incidents of equipment damage due to illegal connections which cost R3.7m to repair, 19 incidents of substation theft that amounted to R8.6m in repairs and 228 incidents of theft of OHM (ohmic) conductors costing R10.5m.
Gijana said the cost of repairing the damage had forced the metro to spend money budgeted for maintenance programmes.
They had also caused a loss of electrical sales income and put a strain on the local economy.
“The electricity department maintenance budget is already strained. Using funding to repair equipment instead of carrying out maintenance causes a backlog of maintenance which also leads to breakdowns that need not have occurred.
“The department has over a number of years installed the supervisory control and data acquisition early warning system to combat theft in our major substations and this led to a reduction in theft but not vandalism.”
The system could prevent the theft but not the damage caused by the break-in.
He said a comprehensive security plan was needed. Security guards and reaction teams had to be sent into high-risk areas.
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