Parts of Florida plunged into darkness after vandalism at substation

Residents in parts of Florida, west of Johannesburg, are fuming over an outage that affected their area on Monday night due to vandalism at a substation.

Some residents also went without power  for almost three days last week after reports of vandalism at the Florida North substation.

“Surely by now City Power should have come up with a serious security plan and implemented it immediately,” said resident Sandra Louw.

Louw, from Florida Park, said it has made life difficult for her and her three young children.

“Our lives are no longer normal. They can’t watch TV or have a warm shower. We’ve been eating takeaways for days.”

Resident Mike Nkosi said he was frustrated with the huge traffic backlogs in the area.

“Traffic lights are not working due to the outage,” he said. 

Nkosi also complained about the frequency of power outages.

“There is always something wrong at our substation, which leaves us without power for days. It is time City Power comes clean and tells us what the real problem is.”

Ward councillor Caleb Finn said vandalism incidents occurred during load-shedding.

With the last incident at the Nursery substation, he said cables to transformers were cut, leaving areas in his ward without power.

Affected areas include Florida Park, Florida View, Florida North and Maraisburg.

Finn said he was frustrated because residents who didn’t have electricity last week are also affected this time.

“The destruction of city infrastructure has an impact on people’s lives,” he said.

Finn lamented what he said was poor policing of scrap metal dealers and the lack of crime intelligence on criminal syndicates. 

“I again appeal to the provincial police commissioner to take the necessary steps to intervene in this situation and fulfil the constitutional mandate to protect this country,” he said.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena told TimesLIVE they have a serious problem with “senseless” vandalism and theft of infrastructure.

“I say senseless because most vandalism is committed with nothing stolen, which makes us suspect some level of sabotage. Most crimes include theft of cables, fuses, mini substation doors and street light switches, among others,” he said. 

Mangena confirmed that in the past four days two main substations, Florida North and Nursery, were vandalised, and materials including bars and cables were stolen.

“These incidents are stretching our resources, human and financial. With these latest two incidents we lost an estimated R14m spent on repairs and replacement of damaged and stolen infrastructure.”

He said the power utility is mobilising extra resources, including security resources, to counter the “scourge” in Roodepoort.

“We have noticed a worrying increase in vandalism and theft around the Roodepoort area, and have increased security in the area, including Florida. Some of the security plans cannot be divulged as they may fall into the hands of criminals.”

He said City Power is mobilising communities to stand with them against vandalism and theft.

“We appeal to the police and private security to be vigilant and increase patrols around electricity infrastructure, especially during load-shedding.”

City Power officials are meeting with the Florida community on Wednesday, he said, to talk about plans to deal with the vandalism and theft in the area. 

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.