Vodacom is fighting back against battery thieves, with the network operator’s contracted specialised security firm recovering 49 stolen batteries.<\/p>\n
Battery theft is a major challenge for operators, which invest significant sums of money to keep their customers connected during power cuts.<\/p>\n
“Network providers are pushing back,” said Vodacom.<\/p>\n
“Vodacom, in conjunction with a specialised security firm, recently managed to recover 49 of their stolen batteries thanks to increased investment in security, exposing a potential major criminal operation in the process.”<\/p>\n
Battery theft isn’t limited to network towers. Johan van Graan, chief risk officer at Vodacom, says criminals are targeting multiple points in the supply chain.<\/p>\n
“Battery theft has affected the entire industry,” says Van Graan.<\/p>\n
“Criminals have targeted every link in the supply chain, right from manufacturers through to robbing towers.”<\/p>\n
However, Vodacom has invested heavily in protecting its backup power solutions.<\/p>\n
Vodacom explained that one of its manufacturing partners in Kempton Park fell victim to an armed robbery last week, during which 700 batteries were stolen.<\/p>\n
Of the 700 batteries, 49 belonged to Vodacom.<\/p>\n
“The Vodacom security team and other security professionals succeeded in locating the stolen batteries in a warehouse near Musina, in Limpopo,” the network operator said.<\/p>\n
“Here, the team retrieved all 49 batteries and returned these to the original warehouse.”<\/p>\n
Van Graan says the company wants to send a clear message to criminals who target their base stations that they will be caught and prosecuted.<\/p>\n
“Therefore, we urge anyone who sees suspicious activity around our base stations to report it to the police by calling our toll-free number: 0822419952 or SAPS on 10111,” he added.<\/p>\n
The company didn’t specify whether the recovery of the batteries had resulted in any arrests.<\/p>\n
Johan van Graan, chief risk officer at Vodacom, says criminals are targeting multiple points in the supply chain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":425870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[36085,35,8487,41],"class_list":["post-501628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-battery-theft","tag-headline","tag-load-shedding","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501628"}],"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\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}