Second cable cut leaving parts of Kariega powerless

A second cable was cut in Kariega on Tuesday evening, plunging two wards in the town into darkness.

This comes as the city restored power to several communities in KwaNobuhle on Tuesday morning after a 66kV line feeding the areas was cut last Friday.

At a mayoral committee meeting yesterday, mayor Retief Odendaal said there was something untoward about the two incidents.

“What is suspicious is that the cables are not being stolen, they are just cut, inconveniencing residents.”

The Kariega line was a 200kV cable.

Odendaal said thousands of households in KwaNobuhle lost money due to perishable goods going off during the fourday blackout.

“We need to ensure that we arrest this scourge of vandalism. I would like to apologise to all the affected residents.

“There’s a need for a standard operating procedure to deal with vandalism and theft.

“We need to act now and root out this syndicate targeting our infrastructure.”

DOP councillor Tukela Zumani said more needed to be done to curb the issue because the city could not do it alone.

“As a municipality, we need to take a stance against vandalism and theft because the perpetrators have a market for the stolen items.

“We need to regulate the sale of scrap metal in the city.

“This would be the most radical act we would undertake, obviously engaging the relevant stakeholders first.”

UDM councillor Luxolo Namette suggested the city conduct an internal investigation.

“I suspect sabotage conducted from inside the metro because there’s no way the perpetrators would know which cables to cut if they didn’t get information from the inside.”

GOOD councillor Lawrence Troon echoed Namette’s sentiments, but said he did not trust the city’s internal investigators to do a thorough job.

“We all know what the result will be if we asked our guys to conduct the investigation.

“I would instead suggest that the probe is done externally to avoid any interference,” he said.