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The Member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment and Infrastructure Services in the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Jack Sekwaila has secured around R9 million to aid City Power in its efforts to deal with power supply interruptions as a matter of urgency. 

City Power has now announced its plans to rollout new and improved security measures to deal with rampant cable theft and vandalism. It plans to remove underground network and replace it with overhead line, which is more difficult to steal. 

A budget of R9 million has been secured and the project is set to commence in a couple of weeks.

“A tender has already gone out and we plan to deploy the new security plan, which includes technology by April,” said City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava. 

Part of the short-term interventions the entity plans to rollout will also include clearing the shrubs where City Power cables run for increased visibility and revamp of streetlights, most of which have been vandalised. 

Mashava said that the current state of network difficulties faced by the entity including the increased loadshedding volumes makes the underground power copper cables, prone to theft - as criminals can easily hide in the bushes.

“We didn’t build our infrastructure for loadshedding. So every time we have loadshedding, parts of our network is damaged. Criminals also take advantage of loadshedding to steal and damage infrastructure which is key in delivering power supply,” said Mashava. 

Mashava said that to ensure budget for maintenance and planned projects is available customers should continue paying for their electricity services.  

“We have made budgets available for City Power to be able to embark on some of these projects that will ensure a lasting solution to the power challenges. We will get it right,” said Cllr Sekwaila.

Issued by the City of Johannesburg