Cosatu shocked by city keeping lights on

Cosatu plans to haul the City of Cape Town before the Public Service and Human Rights Commission and report it to the police for attempting to electrocute copper thieves by leaving street lights on, even though cable theft has cost the city R10 million in the past six months.

Regional secretary Tony Ehrenreich said the city had left the lights on in some areas without notifying residents, and this practice amounted to an attempt to electrocute and cause grievous bodily harm to potential cable thieves.

Cosatu compared live cables to electrified border fences.

“Many years ago the border fence was electrified, in a manner that killed people trying to cross the fence to get into South Africa. Getting into the country may have been illegal, but it was found to be a crime when the lives of people were endangered, where they could be injured or killed,“ Cosatu said.

But deputy mayor Ian Neilson said there had been no deaths of cable thieves reported as a result of leaving the lights on.

Neilson said cable theft was taken seriously, and had cost the city R10 million in the past six months. He said Cosatu’s statement was a wholly illogical response to this matter.

Cosatu called for Neilson to resign after he spoke on a radio show about keeping street lights on during the day to deter copper thieves. “During the day people generally expect the electricity to be off and so people, including kids, try to steal copper to get money,” said Cosatu, adding that they were not justifying theft.

Ehrenreich added that his comments reflected a racist attitude. But Neilson countered by saying: “To suggest that the city is acting with racism in this matter is absurd and wrong. It is worthwhile pointing out that leaving street lights on during the day to deter theft is a nationwide practice.”

Neilson said

the practice of leaving street lights on was done on an ad hoc basis in hot-spot areas as the need arose.

He said the demographics of the area played no part in instituting those measures.

Neilson explained the financial losses suffered due to cable theft meant that the city had to spend large amounts of money on repairs.

This money could have been better spent on upgrading infrastructure or supplying new electrical services, he said.

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