The impact of electricity cable theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure is fresh in the minds of many Nelson Mandela Bay residents who experienced electricity outages of up to three days in the past week.
On Friday, 1 October, the Aloes substation was shut down for emergency repairs due to vandalism, affecting residential and industrial areas including Markman, Coega, Wells Estate and Bluewater Bay, for about three hours.
Later the same day, criminals struck again, destroying two 132kV oil-filled cables and affecting a wide swathe of areas fed by the Ditchling substation, shutting down Central, the harbour area and North End, Greenacres and Newton Park, through to Sydenham and Kensington.
This time the impact was more dire. The repair operation was tricky and took longer than expected, and power had to be restored in stages to avoid overloading the network, resulting in power being fully restored only three days’ later.
Announcements on the municipality’s social media platforms and via local media kept the public informed, but they told only a part of the grim tale and the costs to residents and businesses.
Connections to security services fail, drained backup batteries on alarms and gate motors have to be replaced, food goes off, cooking food is a challenge and buying takeaways or eating out is not an option for many, no hot water, no internet connection – the costs all add up.
Small businesses without backup generators simply have to close, while for large businesses, especially in manufacturing, sudden, unscheduled outages due to cable theft have a massive, destructive impact on IT systems, automated production lines and energy-intensive manufacturing processes – often meaning the scrapping of expensive materials and partly-produced products that can’t be rescued.
Loss of business income leads to job losses, something the city can ill afford with the current record high unemployment rate.
There is also the serious risk of injury or death to municipal workers or contractors attempting to repair vandalised connections, or members of the public coming into contact with a broken but still-live cable.
To give an indication of the scale of the costs, the CEOs of Eskom, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), Transnet and Telkom issued a joint statement in July saying that theft and vandalism of electricity and ICT cables as well as associated infrastructure was costing their companies R7 billion annually in direct losses, with an estimated knock-on effect to the economy of R187 billion.
The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s annual report for 2019/2020 states that more than two-thirds of its electricity losses were due to “non-technical” reasons of theft, vandalism and illegal connections, amounting to a loss of R394 million in a year. The “lost” R394 million represents funds that could have been better spent on upgrades to secure the metro’s water and electricity supply, road maintenance, cleaning, security, and delivering basic services to communities who need it most.
Turning the situation around is going to require a collective effort and understanding that the problem affects all of us.
Regular outages due to theft and vandalism have far-reaching consequences on the ability of business to operate and in turn contribute to economic recovery in the wake of Covid-19 and to grow much-needed jobs, as well as on the city’s ability to attract new investment.
These costs are passed on to ratepayers in some way, and even those who are not ratepayers but rent homes or business premises, will feel the impact as landlords pass on increased service and rates costs.
The Business Chamber’s task team on safety and security is working with the metro’s safety and security directorate, the SAPS and private security companies to collectively find solutions to combating cable theft, protect substations and address the illegal market for cables.
We have like-minded businesses on board willing to voluntarily assist in providing security to substations that serve their premises and surrounding communities, and to this end, we are currently finalising a Memorandum of Understanding with the Municipality which will enable businesses to adopt Sub-Stations which are located in their areas of operation. While this may seem like an extreme measure, it has become necessary due to the ongoing disruption to electricity supply, mostly caused by cable theft.
It's this kind of collaborative approach, acting in the best interests of our city, that will make the difference.
We all need to be the eyes and ears protecting our shared, vital resources. Adopt the mindset of “I see, I report” and report incidents to the municipality’s Vandalism Hotline number – 041 506 5500.
Alfie Jay is Managing Director of Algoa FM, the Co-Chair of the Broadcast Research Council of SA and a Board member of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, where he leads the Safety & Security Task Team.