Drive to curb infrastructure theft

KNYSNA NEWS - Senior staff from the national Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), together with officials from Knysna municipality, accompanied police officers on surprise visits to scrapyards in the town, as part of a drive to curb the vandalism of, and theft from, infrastructure.

They first visited a scrapyard in Knysna Industrial, where the police officers examined scrap on the premises and in a container, and scrutinised the inventory of the goods.

In tow during the operation, carried out on Tuesday 20 August, was an SABC team, based at the national broadcaster's office in George, and among those present was Beauty Charlie, the member of the mayoral committee for infrastructure services.

Door-to-door campaign

After a thorough inspection, the police found the scrapyard company's documentation to be in order, and the party proceeded to a scrapyard in Hornlee, where the officers undertook the same process, again finding no wrongdoing, and the final stop was another scrapyard in Hornlee, which was also cleared.

On the same day, 25 volunteers conducted a door-to-door campaign in parts of Knysna, which the municipality's communication department said was held to "explain (to residents) the consequences of vandalism of infrastructure and theft from infrastructure, and encourage them to report such crimes, and inculcate a sense of shared responsibility for infrastructure".

'Huge problem'

Councillor Charlie (PA) said, "we're sitting with a huge problem with sewers - pumps have been vandalised and stolen. We need to create awareness among people, as this thing is getting out of hand".

She thanked the DWS' staff "for hearing our cry for help".

Dumani Mentoor, the environmental management inspector at the DWS, said police had formed an anti-vandalism unit, which patrolled Sedgefield, Knysna and Karatara.

The DWS' deputy director; capacity building and support, Zolile Simawo, said "we are developing a comprehensive policy on infrastructure with (Knysna) council".

'Develop by-law'

"The municipality must develop a by-law regarding the prevention of vandalism - (and) develop municipal courts, to be able to enforce aspects of the by-law, (to) address ... crimes like vandalism," he said.

A DWS statement released by Sandile Mawela, the assistant director of communications at the department, said: "During its initial visit in March this year, DWS deployed a team of experts to investigate the underlying causes of the water and sewerage issues plaguing the (Knysna) area.

"It was determined that vandalism and theft were significant contributing factors.

"Vandalism of water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure costs the municipality and the entire province millions of rands each financial year.

"For example, in a period of two years, Knysna municipality used around R8 million to fix water and sanitation infrastructure that was vandalised."

'Disrupt the market'

The statement said Simawo had said: "We have discovered that if we work with scrapyard owners, we can disrupt the market and therefore thugs will have nowhere to sell their loot."

It continued: "The blitz (scrapyard visits) by the department, SAPS and the municipality was part of ongoing efforts by all these parties to enforce compliance with regards to vandalism of water and sanitation infrastructure.