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- Cape Town's new Energy Safety Team was launched on Wednesday, tasked with combatting vandalism, theft and illegal connections.
- This law enforcement team will also protect City staff and contractors on duty.
- According to JP Smith, the electricity department needed the largest share of protection escorts.
Last week, the City of Cape Town introduced a new division of law enforcement designated solely to combat the rampant vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure.
The rising global demand for non-ferrous metals, especially copper, has seen a surge in attacks on South Africa's electricity infrastructure, with vital components of the grid being stripped for the lucrative, illicit scrap trade.
Electricity cables, kiosks, substations and public lighting infrastructure are common targets for criminals.
"Those who steal and vandalise electricity infrastructure do not only deny us a critical service, but they also strip away the opportunities that come with a safe and reliable power supply," said the City's mayoral committee member for energy, Beverley van Reenen, during the team's launch in Lentegeur.
The wave of theft leaves communities without power for extended periods. Also, it adds a significant financial burden to municipalities, with Cape Town reporting damages of around R6.4 million, due to more than 350 incidents recorded in City-supplied areas.
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This new team is tasked with protecting City officials dispatched to repair electricity infrastructure and to patrol hotspots where these crimes are most common.
The City has set aside R40 million in the current financial year to fund the Energy Safety Team.
Cape Town's ongoing fight against vandalism and theft will be further boosted by surveillance and alarm technologies being explored by Van Reenen's team.
"We're not just stopping here. We're actively exploring technology solutions to mitigate against the prevalence of vandalism and theft," said Van Reenen.
"This includes a pilot we are running that involves installing devices on our infrastructure to alert us as soon as there are any encroachments detected."
The Energy Safety Team evolved from the City's response to attacks on water and sanitation staff, explained mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith.
"The lesson we learnt with water is today expanding to energy. We're allocating more and more resources to the function of these policing escorts over and above all of our other functions."
He added that City officials were being targeted by extortionists while on duty, sometimes with deadly consequences.
In the second half of 2022, law enforcement provided protection escorts on more than 1 600 occasions. The largest requirement for escorts came from the electricity department.
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