Trinity Methodist Church in Lodeyko recently experienced copper cable theft.
According to church member Charlene Brown, who lives in a house on the property, she was blissfully unaware of this, as her home phone was still working.
“It was only when the Telkom technicians inquired if they could enter the property to check their junction box, that they discovered over 30m of copper cable had been stolen,” she says.
A concrete palisade from the perimeter fence had allegedly been removed and a massive trench dug to facilitate the removal of the cable.
The Telkom technician informed Brown it would have required a team of at least five men to dig such an enormous hole and a truck to haul away the loot.
According to Telkom spokesman Jacqui O’Sullivan, their technicians repaired the damaged infrastructure and replaced the stolen cable.
She says customers still experiencing line faults are urged to report them via their call centre, as these cases are most likely not related to the incident of cable theft at the church grounds.
The direct impact of cable theft includes the disruption of essential services and costs of replacements or repairs of the affected infrastructure.
O’Sullivan says in their efforts to counter the scourge of copper cable theft, they have adopted various interventions, which include:
• Proactively alarming critical and sensitive cable routes and employing the services of armed security firms.
• Deploying various wireless technologies that are alternatives to copper.
• Assessing vulnerable aerial cable routes and, where feasible, burying them underground.
• Working closely with the Non-Ferrous Theft Combating Committee (NFTCC) under the auspices of Business Against Crime and SAPS, to jointly find ways of protecting our cable network.
• Having introduced toll-free crime-report line 080 012 4000 to stamp out cable theft.
“We always endeavour to restore interrupted services as expeditiously as possible.
“It is important to note that each incident of cable theft needs to be handled uniquely,” she says.
Residents must dial 10212 and businesses, 10217, to log line faults.
Affected customers do qualify for pro rata rebates on their line rentals.
Customers are advised to call 10210 to inquire about such rebates for the period during which their lines were non-functional.
“Ordinarily, once an account of a service is linked to a bulk fault, the credit is automatically passed,” says O’Sullivan.
