The City of Johannesburg loses over R50 million a year to theft and vandalism of infrastructure and assets, hampering service delivery and putting residents’ lives at risk.
The City has invested millions of rand in infrastructure and technology to ensure the delivery of services and cater for new developments.
Some of the infrastructure has become the target for criminals who make a quick buck by stealing copper cables, steel manhole covers, steel and aluminium safety rails, electrical equipment and other valuable material from sub-stations, water meters and traffic lights.
City-owned entities like the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), City Power, Joburg Water, Metrobus, Rea Vaya, Pikitup and Johannesburg City Parks & Zoo are the biggest victims and suffer a great loss in replacement costs of damaged and stolen infrastructure.
The City also suffers huge losses from illegal connections of electricity and water by residents in formal and informal settlements as well businesses. It spends over R50 million each year in repairs and replacement of damaged or stolen infrastructure. This money could be better spent on service delivery initiatives in different parts of the City.
This criminal activity continuously leaves some areas in the City without electricity or water for long periods, resulting in delays to deliver essential services. Imagine a situation where a resident is in need of an ambulance service, but because of traffic lights out of order, an ambulance that could have arrived in less than 30 minutes, now it takes over an hour!
City Power, the City’s electricity utility, had approximately 1 644 cable theft and vandalism incidents in 2017/2018 totalling about R13 million in money lost by City Power. The numbers increased to 1 865 in the 2018/2019 financial year, resulting in a R18 million unnecessary cost to City Power.
Isaac Mangena, the spokesperson of the power utility, says while City Power has made efforts to beef up security and deal with cable theft, it relies on communities it services to protect its infrastructure. He urged the community to be vigilant and always report any suspicious activity or construction vehicles working around City Power infrastructure to the police, neighbourhood security or to City Power Control Room on the following number 011 490 7900/11/ or toll-free number 0800 003251.
He adds that City Power is steadfast on fighting the scourge through various interventions.
“Our proactive security interventions broadly entail improving our baseline physical security at fixed installations such as substations, inner city tunnels, load centres and leverage on automated and integrated security systems such as alarms, CCTV cameras, access control systems, and integration of our central control room with City Power core business to ensure seamless operations and efficiency. Deliberate investments on this measures will reduce most high-impact/value incidents associated with vandalism,” says Mangena.
Siya Nodu, JRA’s acting managing director, says the roads agency has lost over R8.1 million in the past financial year. The road agency is responsible for the provision and maintenance of roads and storm water infrastructure in the City.
“Repeated incidents of theft and vandalism not only impede progress in service delivery or meeting targeted completion dates, but they also jeopardise public safety,” says Nodu.
Some of the JRA’s assets targeted by thieves and vandals are barriers, guard rails, street name poles, steel grid inlets, steel reinforcements inside kerb inlets tops, fencing posts, traffic light cables, monitors and poles.
“Because of vandalism and theft, it has become unsafe for road users to walk or drive on our streets. Our bridges have become high-risk areas for road users because hand rails, guard rails and other facilities meant to protect them have been removed. The millions of rand used to repair and replace vandalised assets could be used to improve service delivery in our communities,” says Nodu.
During the previous financial year, Joburg Water lost about 1 100 meters and the estimated cost to replace them, including the associated water loss, was R2.1 million. It has also lost about 3 450 manhole covers at an estimated cost of R3.6 million.
According to Isaac Dhludhlu, Joburg Water’s spokesperson, the number of valves/hydrants that were vandalised was about 3 000 during the last year and repairing them with the associated water loss cost of an estimated R5.8 million. He said sewer blockages due to the incorrect use of the infrastructure was about 24 600 during the last year and was cleared at an estimated cost of R38.6 million.
“Johannesburg Water is in the process replacing infrastructure made of material that has a second hand value with material that has no second hand value. Brass meters are being replaced with plastic meters, cast-iron manhole covers are being replaced with cement or fibre cement covers and in some cases with plastic once.
“Valve/hydrant infrastructure is vandalised to obtain water especially in the CBD where there is a high number of illegal car/taxi-washing happens. Sewer infrastructure don’t get necessarily vandalised but rather incorrectly used to dispose of solid waste and building rouble,” says Dhludhlu.
He said in order to curb the vandalism, the water utility relies on JMPD to do bylaw enforcement, and for incorrect use of sewer infrastructure they have embarked on several public engagements to create awareness.
The City has been doing regular joint operations to deter these criminal activities, however, the City cannot succeed on its own. Business and communities have the responsibility to report and help curb this problem and not collude or become spectators to theft, vandalism and illegal connections.
Residents are urged to report criminal activities on (0800 002 587) or City of Joburg social media platforms.
