Only in SA: Criminals are now ‘smoking’ stolen fibre cables

The last thing one would think of smoking is a fibre cable or two – but apparently some cable thieves do.

At least one major fibre network operator (FNO) in South Africa has learnt that criminals are stealing parts of its fibre cabling and smoking them.

MyBroadband recently approached some of the country’s major fibre network operators (FNOs) to gauge to what extend crime impacts on network uptime and rollouts.

The publication reports that the big drive to expand fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connectivity to less affluent areas has meant crime has become a much bigger headache for FNOs than in the past.

Smoking fibre cables: How and why

One of the mind-boggling drivers for fibre cable theft cited by MetroFibre optical assurance manager Johan Booysen, is for smoking the cables.

He revealed that it has come to their attention that some thieves are stealing the strength member of the fibre core for its glass. This is then crushed and smoked.

Is the crushed glass used in nyaope?

MyBroadband noted that there have been numerous instances where analyses of illegal drugs found around the world contained pieces of crushed glass, including in the highly addictive township drug nyaope.

Nyaope – also known as whoonga – is a psychoactive street drug cocktail of low-grade heroin, cannabis, antiretroviral drugs, and bulking agents.

The latter can include milk powder, rat poison, bicarbonate of soda and even pool cleaner.

ALSO READ: The nyaope isn’t worth it, but they have little else

Drug concoctions and the law

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the use of nyaope has become widespread in townships since it emerged in the 2000s in the Pretoria townships of Soshanguve, Mamelodi and Atteridgeville.

It was only criminalised April 2014, closing a loophole in the Drugs and Trafficking Act that allowed nyaope dealers and users to avoid jail time.

Essentially, you could be arrested for the possession of dagga and heroin, core ingredients in nyaope, but the concoction itself was never classified, meaning you couldn’t be arrested for selling or using the drug.

Since the 2014 amendment, any drug concoction, such as Lean, also known as Purple Drank or Sizzurp (a mix containing codeine cough syrup and soda); Crunk (cough syrup and prescription pills); cheese heroin (heroin and cold medicines like Tylenol PM) and GHB (a combination of paint-stripper/pesticide called GBL and caustic soda) is illegal under the new amendment.

ALSO READ: ‘Nyaope tops the list’ – Gauteng intensifies fight against substance abuse

Nyaope: Smoked, injected or ‘bluetooth’

Nyaope is rolled with cannabis or tobacco and smoked or injected, usually in rudimentary and unsanitary conditions.

In addition, some users inject themselves with blood from another user who is “high” after receiving a Nyaope injection (a so-called “Bluetooth” drug).

‘Smoking nyaope is like paying an unending lobola’

Cathy Vos from the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence told Mail & Guardian that the physiologically addictive substance of nyaope, is the heroin.

“If you have ever watched the movie Basketball Diaries, [the character played by a young] Leonardo DiCaprio is kept in a room and forced to stay clean in order to kick the habit.

“That is what heroin does, and this is what is contained in nyaope. It’s terrible to see, but the withdrawals from heroin are the worst.”

Or like Mohau “Alostro” Louis, a homeless nyaope user from Carletonville in Johannesburg, put it to SNL24:

Smoking nyaope is like paying an unending lobola.

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