Dundee cannot turn the tide on rampant copper theft
Copper thieves are waging a war against the town's infrastructure.
The war on municipal infrastructure such as electrical cabling is continuing, with this theft impacting hugely on residents who are already having to cope with four load-shedding hours when Eskom ramps up to stage 6. Last week, residents were left without power for over 12 hours when 10 metres of municipal cabling was stolen from Gladstone Street, plunging a large swathe of the town into darkness.
The cabling is usually accessed for copper, which is burnt off the cabling – usually on sidewalks in Dundee – and then sold to rogue scrap dealers.
Businesses, schools, residential areas and even churches already have to deal with the out-of-control theft of copper piping, which is sold in a similar manner.
Sources told the Courier that the copper is usually transported out of town for processing.
It was said that copper could be sold off for around R100 to R120 a kilogram.
The same source claimed that unscrupulous dealers even give tools to so-called ‘paras’ (colloquial term for usually homeless people who target such infrastructure), with which they hack off cabling and piping.
Municipal electrical boxes are regularly targeted and the theft increases during load-shedding.
In Dundee, even the Hindu Temple was targeted when several religious statues were stolen and taken to a scrap dealer, who immediately alerted the authorities.
The statues were recovered
.
The SA government instituted a December 2022 to end May 2023 ban on scrap metal exports under a trial period to help reduce the theft of copper and ferrous metals.
However, as results were not satisfactory, this has been extended by another six months, according to a notice in the Government Gazette published on June 1, 15.
In South Africa, the minimum sentence for first-time offenders is three years.
For those who are involved in instigating or causing damage to infrastructure, the maximum sentence is 30 years.
However, this has not appeared to stem the criminals’ appetite for copper and residents continue to suffer the consequences.
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