By REGINALD KANYANE

Eskom said it spends more than R2 billion annually to repair its power infrastructure caused by cable theft. Eskom’s Customer Relations Manager in North West, Ezekiel Baruti said, cable theft is rife in the province and that affects their smooth-running operations.   

“There is a syndicate that continues to steal and damage our infrastructure. Cable theft is one of the reasons that most residents in the province have to endure the darkness for a number of days.

“We believe that the amount used to replace stolen cables, delays progress in other areas. That money could have been invested somewhere to do maintenance,” Baruti said.

However, he said, they have beefed up security at most of the strategic substations. Baruti further said, it is unfortunate they do not have the financial muscle to up security at all their sub-stations, including mini-substations.

“The Capital City of Mahikeng is the most hard-hit by cable theft, while Klerksdorp and Rustenburg follow suit respectively. We are working very closely with the law enforcement agencies such as the South African Police Services (SAPS) and the Hawks to ensure we combat this crime.

“We also engage with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to ensure successful prosecution in these cases. We have had successful prosecution in Klerksdorp, where people were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment,” said Baruti.

He added that, unfortunately, successful convictions do not deter these syndicates.

Meanwhile, the North West police spokesman, Brig Sabata Mokgwabone said: “The crime is dealt with proactively through day-to-day policing in accordance with the crime threat analysis to enforce various legislation, including the second-hand goods act and criminal matters amendment act.

“The province also has a priority committee on non-ferrous metals, which was established through the crime combatting strategy known as a national overarching plan.”

Mokgwabone said the committee among others, comprises SAPS units, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, State Security Agency (SSA), Business Against Crime, Transnet, Telkom, Eskom, Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority, and all major mobile Cell Phones Service Providers.

He said in addition, a dedicated task team known as Economy Infrastructure Task Team has been established to deal with the cases relating to non-ferrous metals.

“It is a fact that alone the police cannot successfully win the fight against crime. Hence, we have Community Police Forums (CPFs) and Community in Blue patrollers. Thus, we urge members of the community to work together with law enforcement agencies in addressing the challenge through the provision of information,” said Mokgwabone.

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