Cable theft epidemic in Northside
Cable theft is a massive problem in the Northside with residents sometimes going days on end without electricity.
The Northside is in the grip of a massive tide of cable theft that has escalated from late last year and seems to be getting completely out of control, with communities across Northside reporting prolonged power outages due to cable theft on a near daily basis.
According to Cobus Botes, area manager for Beagle Watch Security, they are seeing more and more incidences of cable theft throughout the entire area consisting of Honeydew, Ruimsig, Little Falls, Strubens Valley, and Weltevreden Park.
“In addition to a serious escalation in incidents of cable theft, we also see cable thieves becoming more brazen,” said Botes. “They are now even digging up and stealing cables in broad daylight, sometimes disguised as CoJ contractors or even employees.”
In some cases, cable thieves are armed and do not shy away from opening fire on law enforcers or security personnel, as seen last week when suspected cable thieves shot at security responders.
“As long as there is a demand for copper, cable theft will be a problem,” says Botes, adding that cable thieves receive an estimated R80 per kilogram of copper from unscrupulous scrap metal dealers, who smelt it down and sell it on, mostly for export to neighbouring countries.
According to Honeydew CPF public relations officer Mike Steyn, cable theft has been on the increase since the return of load-shedding after the festive season.
“It is difficult to gauge whether cable theft has increased that much from before the festive season, because the statistics are not available. It certainly has become a much more discussed topic since the formation of our community WhatsApp groups.”
Steyn caught a cable thief on January 27. The man was in the process of ripping cables from a street light when he was apprehended.
According to Botes, there is only a very small amount of copper in street lights.
“The tendency is that they disable the street light by either ripping out the small amount of cable in the pole or by stealing a switch that is installed in the pole,” he says. “If you consider they only get an estimated R80 per kilogram of copper, he would likely have to disarm many, many street lights to even make that.”
Asked if he thought that CoJ contractors could be responsible for this to be reappointed to fix the streetlight, Botes said that it is difficult to answer since there currently is no proof for this.
“It is one of the suspicions, but it remains to be proven.”
In the meanwhile, cable theft is wreaking havoc on many neighbourhoods in the Northside. There are nearly daily reports of cable theft in Honeydew – especially in the vicinity of Peter Road, where it is not uncommon for residents to endure days without electricity.
“Something that has come to the fore is that these cable thieves seem to know exactly where to dig for cables,” says Botes. “How do they know exactly where to dig for buried cables on the side of the road?”
The Northsider approached the police’s district communications officer Sergeant Kholo for comment, but after waiting for a week, was referred to his commander, Captain Tsietsi Phora. No comment has been forthcoming by the time of publishing.
The Northsider has also received information from various individuals that, just a few weeks ago, the Honeydew police itself was a victim of cable theft, from right in front of the police station, leaving the station without power for several days. This also is yet to be confirmed by the police.
