Cable thief gets 15-year jail sentence in South Africa

The City of Cape Town’s Alderman JP Smith has welcomed the sentencing of a cable thief to 15 years behind bars for stealing Transnet cabling valued at R558,000.

The guilty party was arrested in Kraaifontein in November 2023, having been discovered with eight bags of Transnet cable weighing more than 400kg.

The metro’s Metal Theft Unit had received information about stolen overhead cables being stored at a property in Wallacedene, and they spotted a male leaving the property in a red Opel Astra.

After pursuing the vehicle, officers stopped it along Voortrekker Road when they found the stolen copper cable.

The man was taken to Kraaifontein Police Station, and a Transnet representative subsequently identified the cables as belonging to the state-owned company.

The cables had an estimated street value of R558,000. The individual was prosecuted under the Criminal Matters Amendment Act and sentenced in the Blue Downs Regional Court in April 2025.

“The 15-year sentence is one of the most significant handed down in a case that stemmed from a City arrest,” Smith wrote in a statement.

However, he noted that with cases like these, there is no mechanism to ensure feedback on investigations and convictions.

Smith said the metro only came to hear bout the sentencing two months after the case’s conclusion.

“It is welcome news nonetheless, and I commend everyone who had a hand in the successful conclusion of the case, starting with our law enforcement officer who made the arrest,” he added.

According to Smith, cable theft is a significant challenge in Cape Town, resulting in the metro increasing the size of its Metal Theft Unit to tackle the scourge.

To broaden its reach, it has also expanded the use of technology like drones, infrared cameras, and closed-circuit TV (CCTV).

“Over the past 11 months, our Metal Theft Unit has made 126 arrests, recovered more than a kilometre of stolen cable and nearly two tons of stolen metal,” Smith stated.

“Staff have completed 4,706 patrols in hotspot areas, 1,573 scrapyard compliance inspections, responded to 501 complaints from the public, and issued 3,634 fines for various by-law transgressions.”

Despite the unit’s recent success, Smith is calling for greater intervention on a national level.

Long jail time for cable thieves

State-owned power utility Eskom has highlighted cable theft as a significant challenge impacting its operations.

Not only does it cost significant amounts of money to replace the stolen cables, but it can also result in extensive outages.

Data from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime shows that the theft of copper cables, overhead lines, and stored copper costs Eskom R5 billion to R7 billion a year.

Eskom also spends roughly R2 billion per year replacing stolen copper cables.

Copper is the second-best conductor behind silver, making it an attractive target for criminal syndicates that want to sell it on the black market.

Eskom noted that copper cable theft, among other crimes, contributed to the intense load-shedding in South Africa in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

The South African government is taking a hard stance against copper cable thieves.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the Electricity Regulation Amendment (ERA) bill into law. The legislation specifies new consequences for vandals and thieves of electrical infrastructure.

Speaking on the development, the South African National Electricity Development Institute’s Professor Sampson Mamphweli said offenders could be sentenced up to 10 years in jail and be fined up to R5 million.

“Another big thing with this amendment is the punitive measures on people who damage electricity infrastructure,” said Mamphweli.

Eskom announced that Witness Sibanda, who stole copper cables from Camden Power Station, had been sentenced to 15 years in jail in August 2024.

After security personnel observed movement using the CCTV system, they found Sibanda in possession of copper cables estimated to be worth R100,000 that had been cut and removed from their cable racks.