Openserve has reported another major incident of cable theft in the Bishop Lavis area. As with an incident in May this year, multiple cables of varying lengths have been cut and stolen.
Lucas Ndala, Openserve’s chief of operations, says that this is having a major effect on the surrounding communities that are serviced by our many clients. At this stage we are aware of 14 of our street distribution cabinets (SDC) that are affected by this outage.
“Despite preventative measures taken after the incident in May, thieves managed to break into welded manholes to get to our cables,” says Ndala.
Areas affected by this outage are the Airport Industrial area, surrounding industrial areas and shopping complexes, as well as residential suburbs.
“We would like to assure the affected residential and business communities that we are prioritising the replacement of these stolen or damaged cables and will do our utmost to restore services in the shortest possible time frame,” says Ndala.
The theft and damage has been reported to the South African Police Service (SAPS) and all relevant call centres are aware of the issue.
Openserve urges the public to be vigilant and to report any suspicious acts, and to report vandalism, theft, fraud or sabotage on the crime hotline 0800 124 000.
