Nelson Mandela Bay metro will brand electrical cables in bid to foil rampant theft

All electrical cables bought by the Nelson Mandela Bay metro will be branded with the municipal emblem, member of the mayoral committee for electricity and energy Ziyanda Mnqokoyi said on Thursday.

“Two weeks ago, we held a meeting to discuss where we are sourcing our cables and to implement a new policy. Going forward, all cables purchased by the municipality will be clearly labelled with the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality emblem. This will make it more difficult for cable thieves to sell or reuse stolen infrastructure.

“We recognise the serious impact that vandalism and cable theft have on our city’s safety and services. That’s why both the municipality and the safety standing committee have developed action plans to curb these crimes. Our goal is to close the gaps that criminals exploit, especially in areas without proper oversight, like scrapyards,” she said.

Mnqokoyi said the plan was to “protect our infrastructure and improve service delivery for our residents”.

The metro is in the grip of unprecedented copper theft. Some of its own officials have been arrested for cable theft, including one whose job it was to inspect the scrap metal yards. Copper cable theft and vandalism have been identified as two of the top risks faced by the metro.

Read more: Eight suspects arrested for vandalism, cable theft in one night

Mnqokoyi accused DA councillor Jason Grobbelaar of trying to steal the limelight from the committee after he brought a motion in council on Thursday that electrical cables had to be marked. He also wanted a council decision to note that a scrapyard caught with stolen property should immediately be shut down. 

In Algoa Park, cable thieves recently stole 40m of cables. 

Patriotic Alliance councillor Gavin Jonas said his party, too, wanted most scrap metal yards to be shut down to enable better control over the industry.

Deputy mayor Gary van Niekerk from the Northern Alliance said he wanted scrap metal yards removed from all residential areas.

Executive Mayor Babalwa Lobishe aired a proposal that the city use aluminium instead of copper.

Lance Grootboom, from the ACDP, a former MMC for electricity and energy, said he agreed, saying aluminium cables that had been laid in Stanford Road some years ago had not been stolen.

Grobbelaar said he had brought the motion as a way to speed up decision-making and the implementation of the plan, since the city had no time to lose.

He said the copper cable theft affected people’s lives in many ways. He highlighted that, for instance, every time a clinic’s cables were stolen, diabetic patients were turned away because nurses discarded their medicine since it became impossible to keep it cold. DM