Price of copper is the driver behind last year's increase of cable theft

Tag : Non-ferrous Metal
Telkom on Wednesday urged all role-players to intensify theircollective campaigns to uproot the problem, saying it not onlyaffects the economy, but also the lifestyle of ordinary SouthAfricans.
The record commodity price of copper, and the strong demand for themetal from international markets, is believed to be the driverbehind last year's increase of cable theft.
Thokozani Mvelase, Acting Executive of Telkom Asset and RevenueProtection Services, at a recent ICT media forum on cable thefthighlighted the need for greater legislative powers to clamp downon cable thefts.
He raised concerns about the slow rate of convictions and the highnumber of repeat offenders.
He said that for Telkom alone, the security related costs for theprevious financial year (April 2006 to March 2007) amounted to overR130m and the company suffered a loss of over R177m having toreplace stolen cable and copper wire.
The incidents of cable theft experienced by Telkom, Eskom andSpoornet last year rose 70% on the previous year's figures - to 11000 from 6 500 in 2005. That's a huge setback after a number ofyears of progress since 2001's record 20 500 incidents.
According to the statement, incidences declined after 2001, butpeaked again last year.
The direct impact on the three organisations in 2001 amounted tolosses of R268m, and the cost to the economy is estimated at tentimes this amount, the statement said. Over the next few yearsincidences declined until they peaked again last year (2006) when11 000 incidences were reported.
Business Against Crime (BAC) is currently conducting a study todetermine the markets in which stolen copper cable is sold.
Non-Ferrous Theft Combating Committee (NFTCC) chairperson Leon vanden Berg told journalists that South Africa is the world leader inaddressing non-ferrous theft and advises other SADC countries thatalso experience similar problems concerning cable theft.
Van den Berg, who is also a senior specialist in Eskom's corporatesecurity risk management department, said that he believed thatcontinued concerted efforts to deal with the crime could havepositive results.
He singled out Zambia, saying legislation introduced in 2003 madevandalism of the country's power infrastructure tantamount totreason. There is a minimum sentence of 20 years imprisonment,without the option of bail. Incidences of the crime have sincedecreased significantly.
BAC organised crime project manager Lorinda Nel stressed that whilejoint initiatives have achieved some successes, the biggestchallenge remains the effective control over the local illegalrecycling market.
Telkom's own efforts in combating the problem include cable alarms,which are activated when cable transmissions are interrupted.Telkom also identifies hotspots and concentrates counter measuresand resources in these areas in an attempt to arrest the cablethieves.
- Fin24