DURBAN: Vandalism in the city of Durban has destroyed more than 40 000 street light poles in the latest bi-annual report released by the eThekwini Municipality.

Deputy mayor Philani Mavundla revealed the impact of the damage on the city’s infrastructure during a full council meeting last week.

Between July 2021 and February 2022, the poles were either vandalised or stolen.

DA exco member councillor Yogis Govender warned that the municipality was experiencing debilitating interruptions in service delivery, which they were unable to cope with and appeared to be worsening each month.

She said that sub-stations, reservoirs, wastewater pump stations and street lights had been impacted. These had either been stripped or burnt.

Mavundla explained that there was a partnership between the SAPS and metro police to dismantle a syndicate that was trading in metals that were stripped from the city's infrastructure.

“New forms of engineering designs have been implemented to protect our infrastructure from vandalism … The process will be concluded by the end of June 2022,” he said, adding that unit heads were finalising a report to the mayor or city manager on the number of incidents of vandalism, theft and malicious damage to property.

During the period in question: 13 pump stations and 18 reservoirs had been vandalised - 15 sub-stations had been vandalised, stripped, or burnt - about 120km of cables had been stolen - 29 air valves had been stolen, 17 being reticulation lines and 12 being bulk lines.

Darul Ihsan Media Desk