Ravensmead krag kwale no easy fix
ONGOING: Vandalism at the root of issues.
The City of Cape Town has appealed to residents of Ravensmead to lend a helping hand after electricity infrastructure was severely damaged in the area.
The City said repairs of a medium voltage feeder cable and substation in Ravensmead, which was damaged by theft and vandalism, is underway.
It said due to the extent of the damage, the electricity supply network in the area is constrained, which causes nuisance tripping and extended outages. It also leaves residents in the dark for much longer than the usual load shedding.
“In recent months, the City’s Electricity Generation and Distribution Department has experienced an increase in infrastructure vandalism, which takes place under the cover of darkness during Eskom’s load shedding,” it said in a statement.
Mayco member for Energy, Beverley van Reenen, said while the City is attending to the matter in Ravensmead and Klipkop, this has become the norm.
“The City has repeatedly been repairing damaged infrastructure. We ask residents to assist us while we carry out the work by reducing their energy usage and by switching off non-essential appliances during peak hours. This will greatly reduce the occurrence of secondary tripping after load-shedding caused by the system being overloaded.
“Due to the scope of the required work to the substation and main supply cable, work is estimated to be completed between seven and 14 days.”
The City said R40 million has been allocated to help fight vandalism of energy infrastructure.
“This allocation is to support law enforcement deployment, enhance security at key points and increase monitoring. This does not include the millions of rand required to fix vandalised infrastructure.”