Elizabeth Lingeveldt heaved a sigh of relief when shootings stopped a few months ago in Bonteheuwel. But within weeks copper theft syndicates took advantage of the lull in gang warfare by targeting the Cape Flats community’s substations, leaving homes in darkness.
“I bought my deep freezer six months ago and it is dead now because of these power cuts. I can’t afford to have it repaired again,” Lingeveldt said this week. “There are disabled people in this community, senior people and pregnant women who need electricity.”
Fed up with the constant power cuts, Lingeveldt and 15 other women marched to some of the metal theft suspects’ homes on Monday. Three days later, she said there had been no further copper thefts.
Ward councillor Angus McKenzie said copper theft also affected schools and clinics, and trains no longer run through the township after railway lines were stripped of copper cables in the past few years.
“I think over the past four months, the city spent R40m just dealing with cable theft and vandalism. It’s everything from stealing overhead cables to bombing and vandalising substations,” said McKenzie.
“We have a high school that is in a part of Bontheuwel that is constantly affected by cable theft. I feel sorry for the principal because when it’s exams he constantly phones me and asks me to keep the electricity department on standby so that kids are able to write.”
Two Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) contractors were shot and wounded on Tuesday while repairing cables on Cape Town’s central line, near Kalksteenfontein.
Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the motive for the shooting was “theft of copper cables”.
Copper theft costs Eskom, Prasa, Transnet and Telkom about R12bn annually. Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said the power utility’s R2bn share of the total “is just the cost of replacing the stolen cables”.
He added: “It excludes the losses resulting from the crimes, which cannot be accurately accounted for since they involve electricity unsold, losses to the customers and damaged equipment and other economic costs. It is not entirely possible to quantify the overall cost of cable theft.
1,500km: the length of copper cable stolen from Transnet in the past financial year
R2bn: the amount Eskom spends annually on replacing stolen cables
— IN NUMBERS
“Other infrastructures that get damaged through theft and vandalism are transformers and mini substations that help distribute electricity to households and communities.
“Before the introduction of load reduction in 2020, Eskom was losing more than R3bn per year to replace transformers and these mini substations annually. These are mainly illegal connections to steal electricity.
“Another big problem is the theft of metal for resale as scrap. Together with most of the stolen cables, the metal ends up in scrapyards. Other cable gets stolen to be used to connect illegally and send powerlines to informal squatter camps that don’t yet have electricity.”
Mantshantsha said arrests resulting in successful convictions were rare.
Transnet has lost 1,500km of cable in the past financial year and said it had spent more than R450m replacing overhead cabling, “which is a 2,365% increase over the past five years”.
In a statement, the parastatal said estimated revenue losses as the result of theft were in the billions for the past financial year.
Telkom said its “national cable network, particularly copper cable and poles in the rural areas for overhead cables, the mobile network towers electrical cables and batteries” were the most affected.
We have a high school that is in a part of Bontheuwel that is constantly affected by cable theft. I feel sorry for the principal because when it’s exams he constantly phones me and asks me to keep the electricity department on standby so that kids are able to write.
— Bonteheuwel ward councillor Angus McKenzie.
“In terms of the market, the price of copper has increased over the past year, and that makes it lucrative,” it said in a statement.
“The stolen copper material illegally leaves the country through several methods to various countries across the world. Stolen batteries are mostly finding their way to neighbouring countries.”
Transport minister Fikile Mbalula and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan have called for a ban on scrap metal sales.
In his budget speech, minister of trade and industry Ebrahim Patel said: “By the end of July, we will have developed and tabled a draft policy on scrap metal, which will introduce a blend of domestic and export measures to address illegal trade in copper cable and scrap metals.”
But Metal Recyclers Association of SA chairperson Quintin Starkey said his association opposed the ban.
“It will negatively affect those within the sector who conduct themselves lawfully, and those conducting themselves illegally will continue to do so,” he said.
“The Metal Recyclers Association continually provides members with updates on suspected stolen goods and infrastructure materials which are susceptible to theft.”
DA MP Mat Cuthbert, spokesperson for the task team set up by the party to fight vandalism, said metal theft was a law enforcement issue and not a trade policy issue.
“The national government has failed to deal with the criminal elements who have plundered our infrastructure and enabled state capture,” he said.
“This and a gross lack of maintenance are why SA’s infrastructure is in such a state,” said Cuthbert.
“We have to get this right if we are to deliver solutions that are key enablers to significant sectors that drive our economy. However, this requires the correct diagnosis, the required interventions and a surgical approach — not merely a blunt instrument like an export ban.”
On Friday, Cuthbert welcomed an announcement by minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele that the cabinet is planning public consultations on ways to curb metal theft.
“However ... we are concerned that the views of ministers Gordhan and Mbalula, who have publicly called for a ban on the export of scrap metal, may result in a predetermined outcome,” he said.
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