City Power seeing 10 cable theft incidents per day

Jan

Jan

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Cable thieves raking in money while South Africa bleeds

Cable thieves rob South Africa's power providers blind, stealing millions of rands worth of copper cabling each year, and increased load-shedding has only worsened the situation.

During an interview with 702, City Power security and risk management general manager Sergeant Thela said the utility spends millions fixing and replacing damaged cables.
 
Does this theft occur at random spots or is it always at specified sites?

If the latter, why would they not hire some Ranger-driving good ol' boys with big guns to guard them? This Sergeant's current forces are clearly on the take or just ineffectual in general.
 
Jefferson D'Arcy said:
Does this theft occur at random spots or is it always at specified sites?

If the latter, why would they not hire some Ranger-driving good ol' boys with big guns to guard them? This Sergeant's current forces are clearly on the take or just ineffectual in general.
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If City Power has the same problem that Durban does, then its random places and usually in places where its difficult for good ol boys in Rangers to protect them.
 
ToxicBunny said:
If City Power has the same problem that Durban does, then its random places and usually in places where its difficult for good ol boys in Rangers to protect them.
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Ok. Still though, there have to got to be some big brains who can come up with something. I don't understand the apathy to something so critical. There is no police force to speak of, so the means will have to come from Eskom directly.
 
Jefferson D'Arcy said:
Ok. Still though, there have to got to be some big brains who can come up with something. I don't understand the apathy to something so critical. There is no police force to speak of, so the means will have to come from Eskom directly.
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So a solution is going to be tricky, regardless of brain power...

Just looking at the area I live in, within a maybe 5km radius of my house will be 10 kms of MV cable which is worth a small fortune to the cable thieves... and much of it runs through very inaccessible places, and that excludes the many 10's of kms of LV cable that supplies each house.

For me, the only real solution is to target the scrap dealers and that market, to completely destroy the market for cable theft.
 
Guess we're dead in the water then. That intervention makes sense but would rely on the state getting off their ample arses and being useful.
 
ToxicBunny said:
So a solution is going to be tricky, regardless of brain power...

Just looking at the area I live in, within a maybe 5km radius of my house will be 10 kms of MV cable which is worth a small fortune to the cable thieves... and much of it runs through very inaccessible places, and that excludes the many 10's of kms of LV cable that supplies each house.

For me, the only real solution is to target the scrap dealers and that market, to completely destroy the market for cable theft.
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I've been saying this for years already.

The fact that this has NOT been done, means that some serious people are behind this and do not want cable theft to stop.
 
ToxicBunny said:
So a solution is going to be tricky, regardless of brain power...

Just looking at the area I live in, within a maybe 5km radius of my house will be 10 kms of MV cable which is worth a small fortune to the cable thieves... and much of it runs through very inaccessible places, and that excludes the many 10's of kms of LV cable that supplies each house.

For me, the only real solution is to target the scrap dealers and that market, to completely destroy the market for cable theft.
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Agreed, the stolen cable is being bought buy someone (scrap metal dealers) so it only makes sense to go after the buyers and burn them so hard that the market becomes non existent as no one will touch copper cables irrespective of where it came from!
 
MightyQuin said:
I've been saying this for years already.

The fact that this has NOT been done, means that some serious people are behind this and do not want cable theft to stop.
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I actually think its not that some serious people are behind it, more that there are lots of middling serious people involved, so they have enough sway to disrupt any real process to stop the issue.
 

Plans to crack down on scrap metal trade​


The Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition (DTIC) gazetted a draft proposal to crack down on illegal dealings relating to scrap metal trade in South Africa for public comment in August 2022.
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I am sure that was said 15 years ago already.

Why should there be a proposal for that. Just get the police to do their jobs!
 
Nikola Tesla - Power over ether. Sorted!
 
KikzAzz said:
I am sure that was said 15 years ago already.

Why should there be a proposal for that. Just get the police to do their jobs!
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They are doing their jobs.. taking backhands and looking the other way when the scrap dealers that their colleagues have a stake in are buying scrap cable.
 
How is trade in copper not yet banned? How??? That is literally the only measure that would bring this to a halt.
 
Hmm wonder if it pays more than my current job.
It's like taking candy from a baby.
Just need to find a fence and I could have a new career ahead of me.
 
Ban the export of scrap copper and aluminium, just for a few years.
 
PaulMurkin said:
Still using the same old "excuse" of "cable theft" to cover up incompetence and clandenstine loadshedding.
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Clandestine?

Eskom's got stage 8 schedules ready to roll. They clearly don't give a fetid dingo's kidney about image at this point. If they want more loadshedding they just announce it.

If anything Eskom wants all loadshedding levels explicitly stated and communicated so it can grill municipalities that don't adhere to the schedule. Similarly municipalities are keen to loadshed as little as possible because it means a loss of revenue for them.

I get the idea of conspiracy theories but they need to make some sort of logical sense man.

At best there's incompetence... but some clandestine loadshedding conspiracy? Nah. Nobody wins there.
 
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