Cable theft a fast-spreading cancer destroying SA

Whether driving through a city, town, suburb or passing a rural setting, the sight has become too familiar and annoying in South Africa today – rampant destruction of infrastructure with impunity.

Traffic lights stripped of copper cables, some transmission lines tempered with, railway lines, energy-supplying sub-stations and transformers left vandalised, have become daily targets of criminal gangs – employing young and homeless drug-addicts as foot soldiers.

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No valuable metal is spared in this scramble – whether installed above or underground – that you wonder how South Africa will look like in the next decade, if the unhindered plunder and decay of public infrastructure is allowed to continue.

A recent journey from Johannesburg to my hometown Gqeberha, I was disturbed to see traffic lights not working in some major roads.

A usually easy morning drive from the townships of Zwide, KwaZakhele and New Brighton, is likely to set you back by several minutes due to broken traffic lights – ripped off copper cables.

Grumbling, shouting and hooting is all frustrated motorists can do – signalling despair, having given up that those in authority will ever do the basic minimum to address the impact of the growing destruction.

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Theft of copper cable is not only a fast-spreading cancer destroying Gqeberha – it has been accepted as normal in Joburg, Kempton Park, Sebokeng, Gugulethu, East London and eMalahleni and other parts of the country.

With copper theft costing the South African economy an estimated R47 billion annually, Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has conceded fighting a losing battle with vandals and thieves, preying on metal along the strategic 740km-long container corridor – linking the Port of Durban with City Deep in Joburg.

How normal can things be when TFR’s managing executive of the central corridor Rudzani Ligege says out of the expected 47 trains supposed to be operating per day, the figure has dropped to about 15?

Despite efforts at strengthening security on the corridor, Ligege and his team have found it impossible to police all 740km of the line. He has been crying for help, with police thinly spread to effectively protect public infrastructure.

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Perhaps our police officers should undergo a specialised retraining to be able to deal with such large-scale theft of parts of the infrastructure, affecting the smooth running of passenger and freight trains.

Last year, Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel rightly imposed a six-month ban on the export of copper and alloy, as well as most ferrous scrap.

This being part of the first phase of the three-phase intervention designed to combat the rampant theft of metals used in public infrastructure, that has not gone far enough to stem the tide.

For any intervention to succeed, it requires a multi-pronged, multi-sectoral, inter-governmental approach – roping in communities, police, intelligence and organs of civil society.

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We are dealing with economic sabotage and the pillage of the economy at a scale never seen since the advent of democracy in South Africa.

Efforts by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi to mobilise 6 000 crime prevention of green-clad wardens should be applauded. We hope their brief includes arresting copper thieves.

To succeed in this battle, we should start by cleaning up the streets of the homeless drug-addicts – banishing them to some far away farm, where they will be rehabilitated and educated.

Simultaneously, a team dedicated to protecting the infrastructure on a full-time basis – hunting those behind the scourge wherever they are – is urgently needed.

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