{"id":442990,"date":"2022-05-04T15:37:51","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T13:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=442990"},"modified":"2022-05-04T15:42:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T13:42:11","slug":"massive-copper-cable-bust-in-soweto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/442990-massive-copper-cable-bust-in-soweto.html","title":{"rendered":"Massive copper cable bust in Soweto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A massive haul of stolen copper cables was recently uncovered during a raid of the Devland scrapyard near Soweto.<\/p>\n<p>The operation \u2014 a combined effort between the Saps, JMPD, and Eskom \u2014 saw heaps of copper cabling confiscated as part of a broader sweep of the Kliptown, Devland, Pimville, and Eldorado Park areas.<\/p>\n<p>Police minister Bheki Cele also said that officers discovered over 1,000 Mandrax tablets and other illegal items at the scene.<\/p>\n<p>The cables were stolen from Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), Prasa, Eskom, and City Power.<\/p>\n<p>City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said that cable theft cost the municipality millions in revenue and that scrapyards were the proverbial &#8220;snake&#8217;s head&#8221; when it came to the crime.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While we want to work with them to help us in dealing with this problem, we have realised that some of them are part of the problem,&#8221; said Mangena.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will intensify the raids on scrapyards in the coming days so that we cut the head that keeps the demand for the copper cables high,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vehicletrackers.org\/2022\/04\/authorities-have-recovered-scores-of.html?m=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vehicle Trackers<\/a> <\/strong>posted videos showing police officers sorting through the cables, which were placed into seven large bags.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">SAPS in Gauteng on scene in one of the biggest copper cable stashes ever discovered at a yard in Devland near Soweto &#8211; cable theft teams from ESCOM, PRASA, TRANSNET &amp; Electicity depts have been called in to assist.<br \/>\nbheki cele <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EALbly0C1x\">pic.twitter.com\/EALbly0C1x<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Vehicle Trackers (@VehicleTrackerz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VehicleTrackerz\/status\/1519768678656524289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Part 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/udZeCT3oBk\">pic.twitter.com\/udZeCT3oBk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Vehicle Trackers (@VehicleTrackerz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VehicleTrackerz\/status\/1519769188629463041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>TFR has called for stricter regulation of the scrap metal industry to clamp down on the trade of stolen copper.<\/p>\n<p>It lost more than 1,000km in copper cables from its railways in the 2022 financial year.<\/p>\n<p>While numerous suspects have been arrested for many of these incidents, Transnet&#8217;s lack of proper screening equipment at harbours means that criminals often use mislabeled containers to smuggle stolen copper out of the country.<\/p>\n<p>The proliferation of copper cable theft was recently highlighted in an <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/441402-south-africas-copper-cable-thieves-have-their-own-schools-and-spy-on-court-cases.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>interview on SAfm<\/strong><\/a>, with one expert warning the syndicates were so sophisticated that they trained thieves at schools and spied on court cases to learn how to avoid getting caught in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Eskom and City Power <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/442146-copper-cable-theft-nightmare-in-south-africa.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>have also observed<\/strong><\/a> a surge in the theft of their power cables, particularly in Soweto.<\/p>\n<p>In one incident, a group of thieves pulled 180m of copper cable worth R60,000 out of the ground using a bakkie \u2014 in broad daylight.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear whether those suspects were linked to the bust at Devland.<\/p>\n<p>Eldorado Park residents recently intervened to stop 11 armed men from stealing copper cables in their area, which led to a shootout.<\/p>\n<p>The police subsequently arrested the suspects.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/442146-copper-cable-theft-nightmare-in-south-africa.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Copper cable theft nightmare in South Africa<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A massive haul of stolen copper cables was recently uncovered during a raid of the Devland scrapyard near Soweto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":443032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[10216,70377,181,35,76532,19238],"class_list":["post-442990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-city-power","tag-copper-cable-theft","tag-eskom","tag-headline","tag-johannesburg-metropolitan-police-department-jmpd","tag-south-african-police-service-saps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442990"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":443086,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442990\/revisions\/443086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}