Load-shedding worsens crime in communities: CPFs

Since the escalation of load-shedding to stage 6, the community of Phalaborwa in Limpopo is feeling the consequences.

Housebreaking and theft of transformers and cables increase when the area is plunged into darkness.

Community policing forum (CPF) member Anton Kellermann said, on average, they attended to six crime incidents per week, which would not necessarily have happened without load-shedding.

“During load-shedding we are experiencing an increase in housebreakings, cable thefts and generator thefts. We are trying to do as many patrols in the areas as we can, taking the very expensive fuel prices into consideration, as our Phalaborwa CPF members are doing it solely out of their own pockets..

“We are working closely with the SA Police [Service] and security companies to assist where we can. We are fundraising to install cameras in vulnerable areas,” he said.

In Polokwane, CPF chairperson Fergus Rosslee said they organised more night patrols during load-shedding.

“The streets are dark and alarms are going off. We conduct night patrols even more, but we cannot reveal the procedure we use to keep Polokwane safe during load-shedding,” he said, as they did not want to give criminals a potential advantage by knowing their strategy.

In Bramley, in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, cable theft also increases during load-shedding. CPF chairperson Shoquat Suliman said crimes varied depending on the area, but robberies had increased since the escalation of load-shedding to stage 6.

“Some of our areas, such as Marlboro, are very dark when there is load-shedding. In terms of safety it is a great challenge. We have policing vehicles doing more patrols and are more vigilant and we keep night guards at hotspots,” he said.

Suliman said they worked closely with private security companies covering areas such as Bramley, Marlboro and Randburg. The companies patrol at certain points and try to be more visible, especially on main entrance routes where there are boom gates.

“Load-shedding has increased the crime rate, especially at night, because we have longer hours of outage. It has been a great challenge for us.”

During longer power outages, guards are deployed at some mini-substations as criminals regularly target substations, worsening the situation.

“We try to work with communities and sponsors to secure these power supply boxes, sort of locking them or fencing them in a cage so they are not accessed by criminals, especially during load-shedding,” he said.

In the Sasolburg area, load-shedding has also sparked cable theft. This has prompted residents to fit alarms in some substations.

Johann Griessel, from the Sasolburg and Vaalpark CPF, said thieves used load-shedding as an opportunity to steal cables and vandalise substations as they know that there is no power. 

“We, as the CPF and neighbourhood watches, took the initiative to patrol the areas of the cables and substations to try to prevent theft and vandalism. Some residents have put up solar lights that shine on the substations at night and they also patrol,” he said.

Annelize Tichauer from the CPF in Linden, northern Johannesburg, said neighbours had come together to help each other during the long power outages and there were joint initiatives with security companies who paid special attention to infrastructure during load-shedding. 

“In the absence of alarms, beams and electric fencing, physical security becomes an absolute necessity. Rather lock main gates manually to avoid being vulnerable when gate motor batteries run flat,” she advised.

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