Government needs to show mettle over metal and ban the sale of scrap

So, my copper mailbox cover was stolen. A few days later, the beautiful copper numbers on my perimeter wall disappeared.

Soon after, the streetlight in front of my house was no longer working. On closer inspection, I found that the wires leading up to the light had been ripped from inside the pole. The copper thieves had broken the inspection cover on the pole and ripped it out.

In the next few weeks, the number of working streetlights in my neighbourhood declined nightly. Stealing the cables out of the poles has become a pandemic.

On my nightly commute, I can now count the working streetlights on my two hands. The majority have been stripped.

Last week, the electricity distribution box on the pavement in front of our property was broken open. The back cover, made of cast iron, is gone.

The number of open manholes is increasing every day due to the covers being stolen.

Last week, I installed extra floodlights at our house because my car was broken into. Fortunately, the alarm went off, but the thief still had enough time to steal the jumper cables.

WATCH: Thieves steal 500-tonne iron bridge in India

A section of my neighbour’s steel palisade fence, supposed to keep his family and possessions safe, was stolen.

Power pylons in the area are in danger of toppling over due to the steel at the base of the structures being sawn off at night. We have more power outages due to the high-voltage cables being stolen than from load shedding.

Some of the train stations in the area have been completely destroyed by looters stealing every single piece of metal they can lay their hands on, from the roof sheeting to the railway tracks themselves.

Something’s got to give. This cannot go on.

When are we going to reach the stage where there is nothing left to steal? And then what? What will be the next focus area for these criminals?

The only way to stop this snowballing destruction is to place an immediate ban on the sale of scrap metal, while we still have something worth salvaging.