Johannesburg - SA’s power utility Eskom, which provides 95 percent of SA’s power, says its fight against cable theft is gaining momentum.
In a statement issued on Monday, the state-owned enterprise says five suspects have been arrested since July 27 for stealing cables in Gauteng and the North West Province.
In addition, Eskom says a scrap metal manager, along with two suspects, was arrested after being found in possession of 446.5kg of Eskom cable, which was stolen from the Thabiso substation In Gauteng.
At the Leeufontein Radio Tower in the North West, Eskom found that 48 deep cycle batteries had been stolen from the building and two suspects were arrested for possession of stolen property.
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“Eskom is plagued by network equipment theft, generally referred to as conductor, cable or copper theft. This includes the theft of overhead lines, underground cables, airdac and bundle conductors, earthing equipment, transformers, pylon support lattices and so forth,” it says.
“The value of material stolen remains a serious concern, as it is indicative of organised, syndicate-driven criminal activity in the conductor theft environment, which is also experienced by other state-owned enterprises.”
Cable and infrastructure theft has previously been blamed for power outages as the utility has kept the lights on for just over a year, despite a two-week long strike, which came to an end Thursday night when a wage deal was inked.
Eskom says the “fight against network equipment theft is being addressed by means of intelligence driven investigations by the Hawks, a division of SAPS, which encompasses aggressive policing of the scrap metal market for stolen goods. The courts are also taking this crime seriously and significant sentences are being handed out to perpetrators.”
In addition, a joint industry working group, formed by Eskom, Transnet, Telkom, SAPS, the National Prosecuting Authority, Business Against Crime and the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) is also fighting this scourge.
SACCI’s latest Copper Theft Barometer, from last October, showed that while the value of copper stolen declined month-on-month, it was 43.5 percent higher year-on-year.
The Copper Theft Volume Indicator decreased to 182.95 metric tons in October 2015 from 194.54 metric tons in September 2015.
It noted this could have been caused partially by slowing growth in China, and a lower spot price for the metal.
IOL