Mabopane residents blame scrapyards for buying stolen copper cable, power cuts

The community of Mabopane are blaming scrapyards that buy stolen copper for their power cuts. Picture: File

The community of Mabopane are blaming scrapyards that buy stolen copper for their power cuts. Picture: File

Published May 3, 2022

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Pretoria - Determined to curb the theft of copper cables, the community of Mabopane Block B marched to send a strong a message to the perpetrators of the crime.

They headed to the police station on Friday to hand over a memorandum of grievances in which they accused scrapyards of selling and buying stolen copper cables.

Mabopane Ya Rena CEO Danny Mokwele said there had been a surge of load shedding followed by the aftermath of cable theft, which had created problems for the community.

“We would be told that there would be load shedding, but then it would be prolonged. The criminals take advantage of load shedding and would go on to steal copper cables.

“It has been happening for quite some time, and the result is that our electrical appliances get broken, not to mention our fridges, and our food gets rotten because the fridges do not work; there is just no electricity,” he said.

Mokwele said thefts negatively impacted on businesses, and the impact was huge on the community at large. One of the results of the aftermath of the constant power cuts was women getting raped.

“When it is dark, people take advantage of the situation. That is when all criminal elements come out.

“There are house break-ins, which have escalated since we had the problem with the electricity power cuts,” he said.

“We delivered a memorandum to the police because we feel like they are not helping us as the community.”

He said they were not sure if the police were aware of the problem.

“Today is the day we make them aware of the problem if they are not aware. We want to show them how serious this is. We have identified the problem and the problem is the scrapyard boom.“

He said a seller must have a buyer. That meant the stolen electrical copper cables were sold somewhere, probably scrapyards.

“The scrapyards have created a market for criminals,” he said.

Mokwele said they wanted to check scrapyards and would like to be accompanied by the police.

“There are industrial sites where such businesses can be accommodated, just not inside the township.”

The police were given 48 hours to respond to the memorandum, and Mokwele said the short time was because of the urgency of the matter.

“They had almost a year to deal with this issue, and I do not think giving them extra time will be in our best interest,” Mokwele said.

The police said they would look at all the allegations and attempt to respond timeously.

Pretoria News