Anger over vandalism

THE Strandfontein Facility Management Committee (FMC) has blamed the City of Cape Town for offering tenders to people who “do not care” about communities, and who end up doing a flawed job.

This after criminals dug up and stole overhead lighting cables from the Strandfontein Sports Ground this week, with the committee saying the City should have put concrete on top of those cables to make it difficult for the criminals to steal them.

Strandfontein FMC secretary Gerard Kemp, said the stealing and breaking of overhead lighting cables in the field was not new.

“It’s causing a huge problem for the users, which are the sports clubs,” he said.

Kemp said the suspects were most likely to be people who lived in and around the area. He said the City should make sure that the tendered companies do quality jobs.

“We are worried about where our teams are going to play, especially now that we are approaching winter season.”

Strandfontein Community Police Forum spokesperson Sandy Schuter said the field had its own security officers, and they were not sure how it was possible for the cables to be stolen.

Committee chairperson Huey Jacobs said next time the City should instruct its contractors to secure those cables with concrete or other preventive measures, to stop criminals from stealing the cables again.

Jacobs said they have been asking the City to provide them with equipment to irrigate and get some grass growing in the field.

He said now more matters, which would include the lighting cables, would be added to the list of demands for the field.

Schuter said the vandalism and cable theft in the field would affect their youth.

“Sport is a mechanism used to steer our youth from crime, and we use it to make a positive impact within our youth, and this is the only field we have in Strandfontein.”

She said that they needed the police and law enforcement officers to visit scrap yards, and laws around accepting cables should be monitored and stricter rules needed to be put in place.

City spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said they had received the inquiry and would respond once the matter had been investigated.