Government has signalled its intent to crack down on cable theft, a crime that has among others led to two disruptions in less than a fortnight to Gauteng’s world-class speed train between Joburg and Pretoria. On Tuesday, for the second time in two weeks, stolen cables halted Gautrain services between the Hatfield, Pretoria and Centurion stations, leaving hundreds of commuters stranded.
Now government says cable theft is sabotage and has signalled its intent to crack down hard on a practice that cost an estimated R100 million last year.
“It is sabotage, socio-economic, political sabotage. A person who steals cables is a murderer, a thief… a saboteur,” said Energy Minister Dipuo Peters on Thursday.
Peters said cable theft would be made a “serious economic offence”, along with illegal electricity connections that have been blamed for repeated blackouts in Joburg townships recently.
The direct cost of cable theft was an estimated R100m last year, but there were no exact figures on the indirect costs – although they were described as “significant”.
Peters was speaking at a briefing on progress in the government’s R800 billion infrastructure development programme over the next three years, including upgrading of roads, water infrastructure and electricity provision.
But, while the government insists people must pay for services so it can roll them out to others, it is struggling to get to grips with cable theft, service protests, most recently in Soweto, where two councillors’ homes were set alight in protests against pre-paid electricity meters, and general non-payment for services.
The official statement, read out by Transport Minister Sbusiso Ndebele, said: “The user-pays principle is accepted throughout the world, but the only area people are willing to pay is in the telecommunications sector. In the areas of electricity, water and transport, which improve their lives, such willingness is lacking.”
Peters elaborated, saying about 90 percent of South Africans owned a cellphone, but nobody complained about having to pay for calls. “But before you can switch on the cellphone you need to charge it. You don’t want to pay for the electricity to charge your cellphone.”
What had happened in Soweto when the tamper-proof pre-paid electricity meters were introduced and residents then burnt the councillors’ homes, was tantamount to “people saying there: ‘Allow us to continue stealing electricity’ “. And when people illegally used jumper cables to connect the electricity supply to a shopping trolley, which then became a heater, they were contributing to outages.
Peters told Independent Newspapers she had written to Justice Minister Jeff Radebe in July to request an amendment to the Electricity Regulation Act so that the theft of cables and electricity were reclassified as a “serious economic offence”.
In addition, the Justice Ministry would have to assess the broader implications, including whether new legislation would be required. It is understood that amendments may also cover electricity cables for trains. “It’s treated like petty theft. If people get caught, they get off scot-free,” she said.
For Ndebele, cable theft and sabotage are close to home. After all, he said, President Jacob Zuma, his deputy Kgalema Motlanthe and himself were among those jailed for sabotage of electricity infrastructure by the apartheid government. “People are doing it in a free society and get off scot-free,” he said.
When trains were delayed by cable theft, it did not just mean workers were late – they often lost their jobs and pupils missed school. Both ministers indicated there was a need for public awareness campaigns so that citizens understood the impact of cable theft, illegal electricity connections and water wastage on the country’s economic growth.
And Ndebele was adamant that the user-pays principle also applied to road improvements – not just Joburg’s controversial Ben Schoeman highway improvement, but also future road upgrades. For consumers, he said, it was a choice: better road networks or congestion.
“If there is an outcry and people say they won’t pay tolls, then we can’t put the freeway in,” he said. “Freeways are not free.”
Ndebele said the exclusion of minibus taxis and buses from the proposed tolls was to support affordable, mass public transport. About 65 percent of public transport passengers used taxis, which unlike buses received no subsidy.
“Is it asking for too much, then, to say on that Ben Schoeman freeway they should move for free?” - Political Bureau