The City of Johannesburg recently completed a R15-million project aimed at combating the theft of infrastructure within its jurisdiction, particularly that of streetlights and traffic signals.
The initiative involved replacing streetlight poles with concrete fixtures, making it tougher for criminals to access the valuable materials contained inside such as copper and aluminium.
The approach was inspired by best practices in other countries as well as other metros within South Africa, Group Chief Financial Officer Tebogo Moraka told Newzroom Afrika.
It’s no secret that Joburg has been battling criminal elements hellbent on stealing its infrastructure to sell on the black market.
The metro maintains a sprawling network of 2,000 signalised traffic intersections, around 20% of which are currently out of order due to theft, vandalism, and vehicle accidents. Its streetlights have suffered a similar fate in recent years.
As such, authorities have been tasked to find alternative technologies to ensure continued service of the city’s traffic infrastructure.
One of the solutions put forth, which eventually got the green light, was to revert back to concrete poles as was the standard many years ago.
Moraka said the main motivators for this change were that concrete isn’t vandalised nearly as much as steal, and it’s also much cheaper.
“Our return to concrete is just based on the material conditions on the ground. What we have seen with the street poles and the vandalism that we see there,” said Moraka.
“But also, the fact that concrete is also cheaper moving forward in terms of a mass rollout.”
Moraka further pointed out that many of the Joburg streetlamps have been converted to LEDs which should enable them to run longer while also deterring theft.
Compared to the old High-Pressure Sodium bulbs, LEDs contain very few materials that are attractive to thieves.
“So, it’s not just reverting back to concrete, but it’s also looking at alternative technologies that can help us light up Joburg,” said Moraka.
Further to this goal, Moraka said that the metro has beefed up law enforcement through the launch of specialised units, which will work closely alongside entities such as City Power and Johannesburg Water to counteract criminality.
It also formed a partnership with technology company Vumacam to install crime-fighting cameras across the city which can detect and track suspicious vehicles and individuals.
It’s busy procuring the services of private security firms, too, who can assist the police in taking down vandals and criminals; and it’s increasing the capacity of its Integrated Operating Centre which permanently monitors activity across the city and dispatches law enforcement to locations where crimes are taking place.
“We must acknowledge that we can’t be at every single street pole, we can’t be at every single traffic light, so we need to use proactive technology,” said Moraka.
Johannesburg is additionally working with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to see how its technologies can be integrated into the city’s camera network.
Fighting the root cause
While Joburg and other metros have found ways to combat criminal elements, they fail to address the root of the problem – the country’s scrap metal industry.
Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport, Kedibone Diale-Tlabela, maintains that theft and vandalism of road infrastructure will only come to an end if the scrap metal industry is properly regulated.
The current legislation allows sellers and buyers of scrap metal to largely remain anonymous, a loophole that is being exploited by nefarious individuals.
“The first thing that I believe is to regulate the scrap metal sector, because this is where all this infrastructure is taken to as and when it’s stolen,” said Diale-Tlabela.
“One of the things we are engaging with law enforcement agencies, including the state security, SAPS, and others, is the discussion around the scrap metal industry. Once we don’t deal with that first, we’ll never win the battle.”
The Gauteng government has instructed these entities to investigate the scrap metal sector and possible remedies to the situation while it continues to work on damage control, said the MEC.
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