CABLE THEFT SERIES
By Rowan Philp
159 cable thefts every day
A WITNESS investigation can reveal that there were 58 000 major cable thefts in the country last year, and rising — a problem so large that the South African Bureau of Standards is drafting rules for the laser tagging of all new power lines.
Meanwhile, the new law that was supposed to boost convictions of criminal scrapyard staff has generated only 370 convictions out of 1 300 prosecution efforts since its launch in May 2012.
How KZN’s ‘big cable’ syndicates were caught
ON a cloudless night, a single lightning flash lights up the skies of Hibberdene.A moment after a man yanks on a long rope — connected to a bolt cutter dangling four metres above the railway line — the 11 000 volts of the green flame melts the soil between the sleepers into a kind of clay.
Copper heists change how we live
CARL Petzer, an entrepreneur in Durban, has changed to using gas for cooking at his home because he cannot trust the power supply “in a cable theft environment”.At his Glenwood IT company, Thusa, he has paid R110 000 for surge protection, an Untinterruptible Power Supply (UPS) device and a generator at his office as the costs of electricity outages mount.
How SA is losing the cable gang war
Just 36 people to protect SA’s 144 000 km of cable
TELKOM has 36 people to protect 144 000 km of cable in South Africa — enough copper to circle the earth three-and-a-half times. That’s one person to prevent theft of copper line which could stretch the entire coastline of South Africa and Namibia. Eskom has static guards at power stations and private security contracts to protect 400 000 km of power line — which is the distance to the moon.
ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE CABLE THEFT BATTLE
