The City of Cape Town has launched a new campaign aimed at tackling the scourge of theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure.

The City has spent a whopping R62 million this financial year (July 2024 – April 2025) on electricity infrastructure maintenance and replacement following incidents of crime.

On a daily basis, the Electricity Generation and Distribution Department gets called out to fix and replace vandalised infrastructure, and they have now launched the “Let’s ACT: Protect Your Power” campaign, urging residents to be their eyes and ears in their communities.

The Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Xanthea Limberg, says the impact of vandalism, theft and illegal connections is leaving communities in the dark.

“Much of our infrastructure is located within our communities, in some cases, right next to residents’ homes. We’re calling on you to help us Protect Your Power and build safer, brighter communities by reporting any suspicious activity anonymously to 021 480 7700.”

The Metro has also established Energy Safety Teams in partnership with law enforcement, and the City is expanding the use of underground cabling and replacing materials that have a high resale value to deter theft.

“We ask residents to report illegal scrap metal dealers. We need to work together. The recent major outage impacting hundreds of thousands of households in Langa, Epping, and Bonteheuwel is a clear example of the devastation this crime is causing. So our message is Let’s ACT and stand together and help us to protect your power.”

Limberg says that often, as soon as infrastructure has been fixed or replaced, it is vandalised again, which highlights the importance of communities alerting police and the City to help protect infrastructure.

The number to call is 021 480 7700

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