The City of Cape Town Energy Directorate has budgeted an additional R87-million for electrical infrastructure maintenance to deal with loadshedding fall-out and ensure reliable service delivery in this and the next financial year.

"Loadshedding continues to hammer city infrastructure that has not been designed for constant loadshedding. Contingency measures are in place, as far as possible," says City of Cape Town Energy MMC Beverly van Reenen.

The directorate added R31-million to the budget to effect inspections and repairs of the Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme in the next financial year.

This plant must be well maintained to enable the city to provide a level of protection to customers where possible. The plant is also working extra hard owing to the non-stop nature of loadshedding, she says.

"Eskom’s loadshedding impact on the city’s operations is profound and, therefore, another R56-million in budget adjustments have also been made to cater to some of the impacts in the current financial year, including an overtime increase to pay for the spike in faults and service requests owing to loadshedding’s negative impact on infrastructure.

The adjustments also include an allocation made for security costs for first-line electricity response teams having to deal with a rise in damage to infrastructure caused by theft and vandalism under the cover of loadshedding darkness.

Further, non-stop loadshedding at high stages leaves infrastructure vulnerable, says Van Reenen.

"The city monitors hotspot areas, and residents are encouraged to report any incidents of theft, vandalism and damage to infrastructure to the City's Public Emergency Centre and the South African Police Service."

The city also offers a reward of R5 000 to anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest, confiscation of stolen or illegal goods or the handing in of illegal or stolen goods. This reward is also applicable to information leading to the arrest of people vandalising, damaging or stealing electricity infrastructure or installing illegal connections, she adds.