How City of Cape Town is tackling R44.5m worth of electrical theft and vandalism
The Energy Directorate has already spent more than R44.5 m as at January 2026.
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The City is battling ongoing electrical infrastructure theft and vandalism, having already spent over R44.5 million this financial year (as of January 2026), money that could have been used for maintenance and other capital projects.
The City said this criminality is a safety risk and is not sustainable. Interventions include undergrounding cables, replacing copper with less valuable materials, using anti-vandalism technology, and clamping down on illegal scrapyards. Last financial year, R76.3 million was spent on maintenance and replacement, but infrastructure is often quickly re-vandalised.
“Theft, illegal connections, and vandalism of electrical infrastructure are safety risks to residents and continue to plague Cape Town neighbourhoods,” said Mayco Member for Energy, Xanthea Limberg.
“The Energy Directorate has already spent more than R44.5 million as of January 2026, just over halfway through this current financial year. This is money that could have been spent elsewhere to maintain existing infrastructure and on other capital projects, among others.
"It is just not sustainable. Various anti-vandalism projects continue to be rolled out, including undergrounding of cabling where possible, replacing copper cables with less valuable materials, fitting anti-vandalism technology to some of the infrastructure, and clamping down on illegal scrapyards.”
She added that the city spent approximately R76.3 million in the past financial year on electricity infrastructure maintenance and replacement. “Unfortunately, often as soon as infrastructure has been fixed or replaced, it is vandalised again,” she explained. “The City has deployed security to monitor hotspot areas where possible, replacing copper with alternative material which has a lower street value, and we are piloting innovative infrastructure protection tech solutions."
She called on residents to fight the scourge alongside their teams by being neighbourhood partners.
Limberg said City Electricity teams are actively working in various areas across the metro as part of our year-round public lighting programme.
“The City maintains a network of more than 245,000 streetlights through significant investment – including a R75.5 million streetlight capital budget for the 2025/26 financial year,” she said.
The City has also launched Protect Your Power, a first-of-a-kind campaign which highlights the massive impact of vandalism, theft, and illegal connections which leave our communities, neighbourhoods, and roadways in the dark.