Chronicle Editor
The Zimbabwe Republic Police has established a crack team to fight vandalism of critical public infrastructure whose replacement is costing Government millions of dollars every year. The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) and TelOne are the worst hit by the rampant vandalism.
Millions of dollars being spent every year on replacement of vandalised infrastructure, could be used to fund new projects to improve communities’ livelihoods.
President Mnangagwa has described as treasonous the increased cases of vandalism that the country is witnessing and has since directed stakeholders in the criminal justice system and communities across the country to work closely to bring these acts of sabotage to an end.
National police spokesperson, Commissioner Paul Nyathi said in response to increased cases of vandalism of critical public infrastructure, the ZRP had established a specialised crack team to fight the menace.Commissioner Nyathi said following a clampdown by the crack team, several people have been arrested in Bulawayo, Matabeleland South and Mashonaland Central provinces for vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure.
He said in order to be ahead of criminals, the ZRP was employing new innovations of fighting crime. Government efforts to boost water supplies to Bulawayo City are being frustrated by rampant theft and vandalism of boreholes and other infrastructure at Rochester and Epping Forest in Nyamandlovu.
Government has drilled 60 boreholes to boost the city’s water supplies but only 43 boreholes are working as the other 17 have been vandalised.The city is supposed to pump an average of 20 mega litres a day from the boreholes but due to vandalism and thefts, it is only pumping 15 mega litres. The criminals are also vandalising transformers and stealing copper cables. Bulawayo City Council, Zesa and Zinwa have beefed up security in the area but the vandals continue to be a menace.
There have been calls to enlist the services of the Zimbabwe National Army and the police to stop vandalism of such critical public infrastructure whose replacement is costing Government millions of dollars every year.We want at this juncture to commend the ZRP for responding positively to these calls by establishing a specialised crack team to fight vandalism. More than 20 transformers have been vandalised at Epping Forest and Rochester aquifer and at one time the situation was so bad that as soon as a transformer was replaced, the vandals pounced.
Vandalism of key infrastructure across the country is disrupting power supplies, communication, mining operations, industries production and transportation of goods, among other operations.In some cases, suburbs are going for weeks without electricity as a result of vandalism of transformers and theft of copper cables. We have said it before that the vandals whose actions are negatively impacting our lives, live within communities and should therefore be flushed out.Government cannot put physical barriers to protect public infrastructure across the country hence the need for communities to join hands in fighting vandalism and thefts.
Last year, the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) announced that it was working on a number of innovations to curb vandalism of electricity infrastructure and it is our hope that the university has covered a lot of ground on this important project likely to provide a lasting solution to vandalism.
Online Reporter