The Mayor of Moses Kotane Local Municipality in the North West, Nketu Ntsokwe, said theft and infrastructure vandalism are some of the causes of electricity blackouts in the area.
Eskom announced yesterday it will implement stage 6 load shedding due to a shortage of generation capacity, from 16h00 until 05h00 daily until further notice.
Ntsokwe was speaking at the Moruleng stadium on Wednesday, during the launch of the Community Cooperatives Programme in partnership with Eskom.
She said the izinyoka are stealing and damaging electricity infrastructures at the municipality, and so far five people have been arrested for vandalism and cable theft and the police were doing further investigations on the crime.
The Mayor has urged the community to work together with the police in reporting the infrastructure theft, as well as assist in apprehending culprits. She has mentioned that most of the culprits are known to the community members, but due to fear of being victimised, such cases end up not being reported.
Ntsokwe told those running businesses and parents not to buy or accept stolen cables but to report the suspects to the police. Also, those who connect or sell electricity illegally.
Eskom’s Provincial customer relations manager, Ezekiel Baruti, said residents must work together with tribal authorities and the police to win the fight against vandalism and theft of electrical infrastructure.
“The importance of today is to come together, to ensure that we eliminate theft of electricity,we eliminate vandalism of our infrastructure, and we also ensure that people do not buy from ghost sellers.
The power utility said the programme will be launched at other municipalities across the province, to warn residents about the impact of the damage to Eskom infrastructure.
