As load shedding continues to plunge communities into darkness, Ward 38 residents are feeling the pinch even more due to criminals on the prowl.
It is alleged thugs use load shedding hours to steal electrical cables into people’s homes, causing more misery for residents already grappling with higher stages of planned load shedding.
At least 11 houses at different sections in the ward were recently affected when thugs stole the cables to the houses.
And according to residents, this has been happening for a while.
One of the victims, Raymond Vandala (64), from Nomqokolo Street in KTC, said his cables were stolen on Thursday 27 July. He said the criminals target load shedding hours to perform their mischief.
“When we went to sleep on Thursday night, the electricity was working perfectly. The load shedding started at 22:00, and at that time I was already in bed. Normally, when there is a load shedding, I switch off the lights and turn off all the electrical appliances,” explained Vandala.
However, to his surprise, when he switched on the lights in the morning there was no power.
Vandala said he checked the meter box and it displayed the remaining units but the lights were off. He went outside to investigate, only to realise that everyone’s lights were on.
Vandala said he realised cables from a lamppost opposite his house were hanging.
“There are three cables that have been stolen and three houses have been affected on our street. My grandchild did not go to school because we do not have electricity. I could not cook the whole day. I went to the councillor’s office to report the incident. But I don’t know when Eskom is going to come and fix them,” said Vandala.
Councillor Suzzane Zumana confirmed the incident. She said cable theft increased exponentially in the ward recently.
“This morning (Friday), I received a report of eight houses without cables. They were stolen at Great Dutch Street in the Hlazo Village area and the other three houses from KTC. This thing of stealing electrical cables started early this year,” said Zumana, adding that she informed Eskom about the problem. She urged the community to look after the cables in their houses. She said she suspected that the cables were stolen for sale as scrap.
