The Democratic Alliance called on Thursday for public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba, as well as representatives from Eskom and Transnet, to appear before MPs for urgent talks on the massive scale of copper theft.

“Minister Gigaba confirmed [in a written reply to a parliamentary question] that Eskom and Transnet continue to bleed millions of rands as a result of copper cable theft,” DA public enterprises spokesman Natasha Michael said in a statement.

Parliament’s public enterprises portfolio committee needed to have an urgent discussion on the problem. “I will write to the chairperson of the committee, Peter Maluleka, to request that Minister Gigaba and representatives from Eskom and Transnet attend a committee hearing on copper theft,” she said.

The government was losing the war against copper theft, she said.

“From 2006/07 to December 2011, Eskom lost a total of R350,2m as a result of copper theft. This includes losses, replacement costs and the cost of increased security measures. The costs incurred by Transnet between 2006/07 and January 2012, amounted to R856,7m. This includes a sum of R80,9m spent by Transnet on increased security costs in 2011/12 alone.”

Since 2006, Eskom and Transnet had lost R1,2bn in total through copper cable theft.

“These numbers echo those released by Telkom, which indicated that the entity lost R1,9bn in repair and replacement costs due to copper theft between 2006 and 2011.”

Michael said copper theft was conducted by highly co-ordinated and professional criminals, “against which our public enterprises are failing to mount an effective defence”. — Sapa