I disagree that stealing of pylon components is an indication of the level of poverty In Ekurhuleni.
Theft in South Africa is a way of life from those in government with huge salaries down to the casual that tends your garden and steals your tools.
If poverty is so bad why aren’t well stocked supermarkets and butcheries broken into and tons of food stolen?
Because it can’t be converted to quick cash like going to a scrapyard.
How much of the proceeds are used for feeding families compared to being spent on drink, cigarettes and drugs?
There are many countries where the population is poorer than here but they don’t have the incredible amount of theft we have.
There is no thought of “this is not mine” it’s just “I see it, I want it, I take it” whether it’s a car, cell phone, manhole cover, brass garden tap or anything else of value no matter how small or important it may be or what the resulting cost may be.
The thieves are often not the destitute, they are self-employed plunderers with no cost of acquisition and 100% profit margin.
A complete Spar roof and steel structure was stolen in daylight over weeks in the middle of Springs last year and the police did nothing, they said the owner had to lay a complaint first!
Also the roof at the Windmill Park ventilation shaft where the stripper was photographed in daylight brazenly removing the sheeting and the camera made no difference to him.
Often those really poor are seen gathering plastic bottles, paper and suchlike, dragging them for kilometres for a few Rand, so there is much lying around to collect honestly, before causing millions of Rands worth of industrial damage for a few bits of steel.
The culprits must pay the price of this catastrophe and what they cost us businessmen, cable theft should have a life sentence, with the billions we lose through it we could build millions of houses instead.
When will this lawlessness stop?
Bob Gillies.
