Cable theft crippling Metros
Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga has called on the community to work with the police and report incidents of cable theft because when cables are stolen it’s the community that suffers.
The Mayor said within the last six months, between November and last week, the city has lost R65 million to cable theft.
He said between Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg, R250 million has been lost in the last six months due to cable theft.
This then results in the city not being able to roll out new infrastructure because they keep on fixing the cables. ”If we don’t address this it will cripple our municipalities, the economy of Gauteng and to an extent South Africa’s economy.”
On Tuesday, 22 May 2018 The Tshwane Metro Police Department(TMPD) caught cable thieves in the act in Pretoria west after a tip off about a truck that frequently passes at Pretoria West. The TMPD Cable unit slept at the area waiting and during the early hours of the morning, a truck parked behind them.
City of Tshwane mayor, Solly Msimanga was at the scene and he said the truck was camouflaged.
“They had aluminium cans on top, but underneath was copper worth R500 000 and the copper was positively identified as the City’s copper, “ the Mayor said.
There were two occupants in the truck, but TMPD arrested one and the other managed to get away. The arrested suspect contacted someone and the person he contacted is now a suspect who will be cross questioned along with one of the truck’s occupants.
Msimanga says the thefts cost them a lot, for example the copper that’s worth R500 000 cost them close to R1million to R1.5 million per sub-station to replace.
According to TMPD’s Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba, bylaws state that licenses cannot be issued for scrap yards around residential areas to use copper, only scrap yards in industrial areas are allowed licenses for copper.
The truck’s destination was to a metal dealer in a residential area and when the TMPD tried to enter they weren’t allowed because the metal dealer’s owner has a court interdict against TMPD, but Msimanga says they will not rest because if they don’t get to the bottom of this it will continue being a big problem for the municipality.
“We want to engage with the SAPS (South African Police Services) on this part, remember, some of these acts contradict our laws in the city. So we want to have an understanding of how these licenses were issued because according to the bylaws you cannot issue a license to the supplier that is operating in residential areas… so we are asking about how these guys get licenses in a residential area,” said the Mayor.
