Families in Amalinda and surrounding suburbs have been left frustrated by repeated electricity outages caused by cable theft left them without power for days at a time — spoiling food, disrupting celebrations, and raising safety concerns.
Residents say the outages, many lasting close to 48 hours, began shortly before Christmas and continued into January, affecting Amalinda, Saxilby, Morningside and parts of Cambridge and Chiselhurst.
With households fuller than usual as family members returned home for the holidays, the timing hit particularly hard, with some residents reporting financial losses after food spoiled in the December heat.
“Between December 22 and 23, we encountered the problem of electricity, where it just went off, and we learnt from our community group chats that it was an issue that affected the whole of Amalinda,” resident Sindiswa Maqina said.
“We struggled with not having electricity, and we had to refill our gas tanks. We had no money because we spent most of our money on Christmas groceries.
“Then, fortunately, electricity was fixed before Christmas, but then again, we had to go without electricity on January 1.”
Maqina said she had also fallen victim to cable theft at her own home.
“I am also a victim of cable theft here in my house as we have had our electrical cables cut, and we have live electricity that we have to deal with.
“That poses a threat to the children who like to play next to it,” she said.
BCM spokesperson Bongani Fuzile said cable theft remained a city-wide problem but Amalinda had been hardest hit.
“Amalinda has been disproportionately affected due to the presence of underground medium-voltage cables, which are more difficult to monitor and secure.” he said.
Amalinda has been disproportionately affected due to the presence of underground medium-voltage cables, which are more difficult to monitor and secure,” he said.
“These criminal activities result in extensive damage to essential electrical networks, forcing the city to carry out repeated repairs and replacements, which unfortunately leads to frequent and prolonged power interruptions.”
Fuzile said the thefts also placed significant pressure on municipal finances through repeated repairs, overtime labour, equipment replacement and loss of electricity revenue.
Restoration work sometimes took up to 48 hours because of the complexity of repairing underground systems.
“Repairs required locating damaged underground cables, procuring replacement materials, and conducting safe testing and reconnection procedures,” he said.
“BCM strongly condemns these criminal acts, which not only disrupt essential services but also endanger lives, undermine economic activity, and delay development initiatives.
“The city appeals to residents to assist by reporting suspicious activity relating to cable theft and vandalism.”
Some residents criticised slow turnaround times and inadequate communication during outages.
“Our food is going off in our fridges, and the fridges are getting hot,” Chiselhurst resident Odeppe Fisher said.
“We are paying for a service that we are not receiving, which is rather unfair to us.
“The communication from BCM is poor, and they are not doing anything to stop this from happening.”
Residents said outages had been reported on December 4, December 23, January 1, January 3 and January 6, with most lasting more than 24 hours.
Some have proposed moving underground cables onto raised poles to discourage theft.
BCM mayor Princess Faku urged communities to work with the municipality to combat vandalism and cable theft, saying responsibility could not rest with the city alone.
“We are looking at different options to take the cables in another direction,” she said.
“The community must work together with the municipality in dealing with criminality and vandalism of infrastructure.
“It is not good when something happens in your community and you do not want to take responsibility — we must take collective responsibility.”
Faku said BCM was in the process of appointing a service provider to implement alternative cabling solutions and promised affected communities that the matter was receiving urgent attention.
“We do not want this matter to continue before the schools open. We are hoping that by next week the matter will be resolved on a permanent basis,” she said.
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