Cape Town turns to anti-vandalism technology to outsmart cable thieves

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Cape Town is turning to reinforced streetlight poles, surveillance cameras and cable sensors in a bid to outsmart criminals who have repeatedly stripped electrical cables and vandalised infrastructure, leaving communities in the dark.

The city has begun installing 13.5-metre heavy-duty anti-vandalism poles, with electrical connection boxes positioned higher above the ground to make them harder for thieves to access.

The latest interventions form part of a broader strategy to protect the municipality’s electricity network from persistent vandalism, theft and illegal connections.

This comes as vandalism, theft and illegal electricity connections continue to place immense strain on the City of Cape Town’s electricity network and its resources.

Mayoral committee member for energy Xanthea Limberg said the upgraded poles have a larger diameter and thicker construction than standard streetlight poles, making them more resistant to tampering.

“Most importantly, the access points and electrical connection boxes have been raised, making them significantly more difficult to tamper with. The city is also installing additional surveillance cameras … and sensors will be installed on all supply cables,” she said.

The measures follow a R1.1m investment in streetlight upgrades along 35th Avenue, between Robert Sobukwe Road and Owen Road, in Bishop Lavis, where criminals have repeatedly stripped cables and damaged streetlight fittings.

The corridor, which forms part of the broader airport precinct, has become a persistent vandalism hotspot, with the city spending more than R2.2m on high-mast light maintenance and repairs in the area during the previous financial year.

Cape Town fortifies streetlights as cable thieves keep communities in the dark. Across the metro, vandalism and theft forced the municipality to spend about R75m repairing and replacing damaged electricity infrastructure during the 2025/26 financial year.

The city said the money could otherwise have been used to upgrade existing infrastructure and expand electricity services to communities.

Limberg said the municipality was also burying cables underground where feasible, replacing copper conductors with materials of lower resale value and installing protective concrete barriers and security cages around vulnerable infrastructure.

The city remains committed to safeguarding critical electricity assets, but lasting success requires the support of residents in reporting vandalism, theft, suspicious activity and illegal connections that undermine service delivery and place communities at risk.

Security personnel are being deployed to identified hotspots, while the city is working with law enforcement agencies to clamp down on illegal scrapyards.

“To help deter criminal elements, we are hardening our power grid infrastructure, including welding works, protective concrete barriers and caging, among others, but the success of these interventions isn’t guaranteed.

“We need to catch vandals in the act and get successful convictions to steadily change the tide,” she said.

The municipality maintains a network of more than 245,000 streetlight fittings and continues to face thousands of electricity-related service complaints.

Between July and August, municipal teams attended to 28,417 publicly logged electricity service requests, including 8,964 streetlight-related complaints.

Limberg said the city was investing R6bn through its medium-term capital investment programme to strengthen the electricity distribution network.

She urged residents to report cable theft, vandalism, suspicious activity and illegal electricity connections to police and municipal authorities.

“The city remains committed to safeguarding critical electricity assets, but lasting success requires the support of residents in reporting vandalism, theft, suspicious activity and illegal connections that undermine service delivery and place communities at risk,” she said.

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