Government calls for protection of economic infrastructure

• Published date: 20 May 2022
• Publication title: South African Official News

Government has reiterated its call for every person in the country to protect the country's critical economic infrastructure.

This follows recent incidents of cable theft, railway destruction, vandalism, and allegations of sabotage at Eskom.

'These incidents go against the country's endeavours to move the economy in an upward trajectory, so that the triple challenge of unemployment, poverty and inequality are addressed,' said Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele.

On Thursday, Eskom had to withdraw services in Ivory Park Ext 8 because of violence directed towards its employees and the community taking Eskom equipment.

'We condemn the incident at Ivory Park, and similar criminal activities that have occurred. We will not tolerate such forms of criminality and perpetrators will face the full might of the law.

'All citizens must be cognisant that critical infrastructure consists of all systems, or things that must always be operational and intact for daily work and life to succeed.

'Vandalism, theft and destruction of infrastructure cripples economic activity in the country. Therefore, we all have a role to play to stop the destruction of our infrastructure, and uplift South Africa,' Gungubele said.

In response to the destruction on the country's infrastructure, government has introduced interventions to strengthen security for public assets.

The Department of Transport has already embarked on a multidisciplinary security intervention, which includes the recruitment of 3 100 security personnel at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), as well as the...