Cape Town - More than 2 000 people have been arrested in a six-month crack-down on rail-linked crime.
The 2 115 arrests were made by Metrorail Protection Services and the South African Police Services - with 9 percent of these involving metal theft.
Police said on Friday the “rail environment has been experiencing an increase in the theft and damage of infrastructure such as signal cable, copper cable, track boxes and pandoral clips, which are essential in the smooth running of the railways.”
Briefing the media at Cape Town Station, regional manager Richard Walker paid tribute to both teams for their relentless pursuit of metal thieves.
“The number of arrests is a direct result of the level of collaboration and support between the Rapid Rail Response Unit and our Protection Service department,” he said.
“The events of July this year prompted a joint focus approach to vandalism, resulting in the formation of a cable team to concentrate specifically on cable theft in the rail environment.”
Walker said metal theft had reached a point “where a definitive and effective solution is critical”.
“Every organisation exhibiting on Cape Town Station is significantly affected by metal theft; proof that this criminal activity deserves an integrated and sustained response on multiple fronts if it is to be eradicated,” he said.
A wide range of security and related agencies were tackling the scourge, including Metrorail and the Rapid Rail Police Unit of the South African Police Service, backed by Transnet, Telkom, Eskom, Vodacom, the City of Cape Town’s “Copper Heads” and Business Against Crime (BAC), which were all bodies that suffer metal theft on a regular basis.
Walker reported the region suffered several metal thefts daily, explaining: “At least three or four incidents are reported every day across our extensive rail network.”
Random theft of cables and other metal-bearing components accounted for 5-8 percent of delays. Items stolen included multicore communication cables, signal heads, points machines, rail clips, track circuits, track boxes, jumper cables and apparatus cases. Multi-core cables could contain up to 61 individual cables.
Metrorail’s engineers were constantly trying to devise “preventive target hardening measures such as metal casings, tamper-proof locks, burying cables underground, amongst others”.
Contact numbers for the Rapid Rail Police Units:
Retreat:(021) 710 5129 / 0
Cape Town:(021) 443 4325 / 7
Philippi:(021) 370 1000
Bellville:(021) 941 6800
Crime Stop:08600 10111
Crime tip-offs: SMS 32211
Metrorail Protection Services:(021) 449 4336
Transport for Cape Town:0800 65 64 63.
A reward of up to R50 000 is payable for information leading to a conviction.
Cape Argus