“Cable theft is crippling the city’s infrastructure.” So says Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
Hill-Lewis did a site inspection of the Woodstock railway line on Friday 27 May and dubbed the site as one of “the worst sites of cable theft” in the city.
The mayor says copper theft is occurring on a monumental scale at present and that it costs the City of Cape Town about R2 million per week just to fix streetlights.
“What we are seeing here are hundreds of kilometres of stolen cables or what’s left of it. This is City of Cape Town cables, Prasa, Transnet, Telkom and Eskom cables. It is being plundered daily and costs millions.”
Hill-Lewis says an entire city of cable is plundered every day. “We have seen tunnels underneath this wall into Prasa’s train yard where they are literally dismantling trains, piece by piece. We have found wheels and train doors being stolen.”
Hill-Lewis says, this month the City’s metal theft unit made 56 arrests for cable theft.
According to the mayor, the scourge of cable theft has brought the railway services in the city to its knees.
“There has been a 97% reduction in train usage in Cape Town. And this is a major part of the reason. The infrastructure is not being properly protected.”
He says in the upcoming budget starting Friday 1 July, the City has set aside R35 million into drone technology and hopes this will “turn the tide” against cable theft in particular.
Hill-Lewis says while the City is doing its best, it cannot win this battle alone.
“Our metal theft unit does really well. We need people to report when they see cables being stolen. I would like to see some Prasa security here, 24 hours a day, looking through all of these houses. And all of us working together.
The mayor called on the South African Police Services, Crime Intelligence and State Security to get involved and investigate.
“These guys stealing this cable are not the ones who are selling it overseas. This is the beginning of the supply chain. These are going to bucket shops and turned into copper exported to the global market.”
Geordin Hill-Lewis says the reason for the huge spike in cable theft is because the global copper price is the highest it’s been in 20 years.
Ian McMahon, Ward 115 councillor, says the complaints from residents regarding streetlights and other infrastructure not working have spiked in recent months.
“I get a few people query why we leave some of the streetlights on during the day and it’s to try and prevent cable theft. It really is a scourge and it really does affect this community greatly.”
Gene Lohrentz, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Geocentric Urban Management, the management company for the Woodstock Improvement District, says: “This has become one of the hotspots where the cable copper is extracted from the cable casing. It’s infrastructure from the City, Telkom; from just about every state-owned entity. The kilometres of casings here show the extent of the copper theft.”
He says this scourge affects the entire community and businesses.
“It emanates from here into our neighbourhoods and our business area where sub-stations, streetlights and everything else gets vandalised for the copper and that has a negative effect on the safety and securities of our communities.”
Lohrentz also called on Prasa to play its part. “We want this rail road to be properly secured and for the ownership between Transnet and Prasa to do their work, secure their infrastructure and turn the opportunity for crime down.”
Nana Zenani, acting spokesperson for Metrorail Western Cape, says the issue of cable theft is not “limited to Prasa”.
“It is a law enforcement issue; ours is to replace and report when we have suspects. We do not hold the key to resolving the mystery of cable theft. Unfortunately, that falls within the ambit of the police. The removal of informal settlements has a legal ramification. We can’t just execute that. I am sure the City is aware of that. The City also has informal settlements that are springing up everywhere.”
Zenani says the rail service is willing to work with the City. “We would really welcome the joint working relationship with the City with regards to cable theft, and with regards to the removal of informal settlers.”
