As if their criminal act of stealing the copper cables connecting the distribution boxes to the pumps at the main pump station at the Albasini Dam were not sufficiently disruptive for leaving the town without water for the weekend, the thieves went a spiteful step further and cut most of the secondary interconnecting wires within the boxes.

The result was that repair work, which should have taken a few hours, now took nearly two days.

The theft took place at around midnight on Friday. A warning system alerted officials to the fact that the power supply had been disrupted. By the time they got to the pump station, they found absolute carnage. The damage is estimated to be around R800 000.

The officials on the scene described the way in which the thieves had gone about cutting the wires systematically and deliberately as pure vandalism.

“One can see that they are really p*$#@d off that we are making it more and more difficult for them to commit their crimes,” he said. “They deliberately set out to destroy the equipment to make it as difficult as possible to repair the damage”.

What is clear is that the thieves had enough time to perform their deeds.

They opened a transformer near the pump station by systematically loosening more than 20 bolts. They then stripped it of everything useful, which suggests that the perpetrators knew exactly what to look for and where to find it. They also tried to break a concrete casing in which roughly 50 meters of cable leading to the pump station is enclosed, but to no avail.

“Chances are that this is what made them angry. In the past, the cables were more accessible, but they clearly could not break this casing,” the official said. However, the nature of the damage inside the pump station has made it necessary to break up the concrete floor in order to repair the cables, since they were cut off at ground level.

The matter of security at pump stations and other vulnerable Council assets has been under the spotlight for some time, specifically with regard to theft and vandalism. In the past, Zoutpansberger has directed many enquiries at the municipal spokesperson, Mr Louis Bobodi, about the state of affairs and Council’s apparent lack of willingness to institute effective security measures at these sites. No satisfactory answers could be obtained up to now.

In the case of the latest incident, Bobodi said the police have not been able to confirm whether or not they have made any positive identification of suspects from the fingerprints taken at the scene.

As for the water shortage in town, Bobodi said that the water supply was re-established at around 12:30 on Sunday, but some residents had access to water sooner than others because of the uneven pressure in the pipes and the fact that the levels of the reservoirs varied.

As for the damage, Bobodi said that no municipality budgets for vandalism and theft and the bill for the repairs will probably be footed by the Vhembe District Municipality, since the incident concerns bulk water supply. He said the municipality views this incident in a very serious light and is once again “in the process of beefing up security in the area”. It will endeavour to involve other security agencies, from provincial to district level. Bobodi would not, however, confirm Council’s employing a security firm to guard municipal assets around the clock. He did not preclude the possibility of enlisting the aid of established security outfits such as the Albasini farm watch.

Bobodi gave an undertaking to residents that this sort of incident will soon be a thing of the past. At the same time, he appealed to the public to assist the municipality in any way possible to prevent this problem from recurring.

In his reaction to the events, the chairman of the LTT farmers association, Mr. Fritz Ahrens, indicated that concerns about the security at the pump station had been raised with the relevant authorities a number of times, to no avail. He indicated that a number of farms in the vicinity had also fallen victim to the copper thieves. Despite their differences with the municipality, they are, however, prepared to cooperate with the municipality if a warning system can be installed to alert the farm watch when the electricity at the station goes down. “Our aim would be to catch the culprits red-handed as we can be on the scene in a few minutes,” he said.

The DA’s representative in Council, Mr. Brian du Plooy, indicated that the situation at the station, where no security measures are currently in place, is unacceptable.

“Not even after the first few incidents did the Council bother to improve the situation,” he said. He also indicated that the department in question might function a lot better if the number of vacancies that exist can be filled. Previously, it consisted of 72 people, but only 27 remain. They also do not really know where the responsibility for maintenance and repairs lies, with the Makhado Municipality, or with the Vhembe District Municipality.”

The chairman of the Zoutpansberg Ratepayers Association, Mr Herman Smith, also reacted to the events. His detailed response can be read elsewhere in the paper. In the meantime, residents have expressed the fervent wish that this situation will be addressed soon, as being left for days without water is not acceptable and contrary to the undertaking by the government to make sure every household has access to basic water, sewage and electricity.