Metro cable damage to be investigated

Buffalo City Metro has resolved to investigate possible acts of sabotage targeting its finance department.

This follows a council report asking it to condone a deviation in supply chain regulations to fix a fibre link between the Munifin building and the East London Industrial Development Zone.

The report says the link had been damaged in November 2022, and they needed to appoint a company to fix it.

The Munifin building deals mainly with the city’s finances, including revenue collection. The report says the city depends on the link, and the damage stops staff from sending and receiving emails.

The city is also unable to access its online procurement systems, and means it cannot assist its clients.

During the debate on the report on Tuesday, finance mayoral committee member Sakhumzi Caga said there was a suspicion of sabotage, adding this sort of damage happened frequently, particularly at month end when the city was trying to collect payments from ratepayers, causing long queues.

“It shuts down our system and we can’t do anything. We can’t even apply or implement credit control measures as a result.”

Caga said the damage affected the city’s entire connection rate.

“Something needs to be done. I don’t know whether it is something that is done deliberately as sabotage of some sort. It needs to be investigated, because it happens every month towards the end of the month, starting from the 15th.

“Can corporate services run with this so that the investigation and all of that becomes a resolution, and you report back?” Caga asked.

The department has been given until April to bring a progress report to the council.

DA councillor Sue Bentley backed Caga’s call for an investigation.

“I will support councillor Caga’s proposal,” she said. “It’s quite frightening what he had to say.”

Bentley said she understood the link had to be fixed, but she questioned whether the city was going to recover the money from the responsible party.

She also questioned how the city identified the company it hired to do the repairs.

Caga said it was unclear who had caused the damage.

“Until we know who damages fibre, we can’t determine whether we recover money or not.”

Corporate services mayoral committee member Helen Neale-may said when the frequent damage happened, the city sourced the first available contractor.

“Sometimes it is specialised and therefore, because the system is linked to our data centre and all the ICT, we have to have it fixed.”

Caga had earlier told the council of a similar problem when Qonce residents had little option but to pay all their bills in cash because of an IT glitch.

The city has recently been battling a spate of vandalism, with criminals targeting cables around town.

The Daily Dispatch has reported on the brazen thefts a number of times, including several on the East London beachfront targeting streetlights.

Previously the city has attributed the damage to the mushrooming of scrapyards that deal in copper cables.

The current damage to the BCM cable, according to the report, happened on Settlers Way, which is under construction.

It is unclear whether the cable was damaged during the construction or if it was targeted.

Finance mayoral committee member Sakhumzi Caga said there was a suspicion of sabotage, adding this sort of damage happened frequently