Telkom and state-owned enterprises Eskom, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) and Transnet have called for “drastic measures” to deal with the escalating problem of infrastructure vandalism and theft that is estimated to be costing the country about R100-billion/year.
The CEOs of the four companies led a high-profile meeting with stakeholders on Friday under the umbrella of the Economic Sabotage of Critical Infrastructure (ESCI) Forum, aimed at finding solutions to the scourge. The ESCI Forum was established in 2020.
Figures presented by the forum showed that there were more than 54 000 incidents of economic sabotage of critical infrastructure in the past 12 months.
“The economic toll, experienced across the country, has reached the point where drastic measures are required, from a policy execution and coordination perspective,” the companies said in a joint statement after the conclusion of the meeting.
Telkom’s group CEO, Serame Taukobong, said his company – like others in the telecommunications sector – is experiencing “high levels cable theft and sabotage, battery theft, and vandalism of infrastructure”.
The economic damage of copper theft alone has been estimated at more than R45-billion annually, the participants at Friday’s event said.
“Copper cable theft; electricity poles and battery theft from telecoms base stations; electricity theft and illegal connections; vandalism and malicious damage to property; extortion and bribery; hostage-taking; burning of train coaches and theft of rail lines – these have all increased over the recent while,” the forum said.
Some progress
Some progress has been made, including creating a specialised multi-disciplinary unit to address economic sabotage, extortion at construction sites, and vandalism of infrastructure, the forum said. The South African Police Service also set up a task team on cable theft and damage to essential infrastructure, while cabinet approved the public consultation process for proposals to restrict the trade of illegally obtained scrap and processed metals.
“Eskom is encouraged by the support it is receiving from the security and law enforcement agencies, including the commitment by the National Prosecuting Authority to commence the prosecution of the many serious crimes that have negatively affected Eskom,” said Eskom CEO André de Ruyter.
Read: MTN’s big fight against ‘revenge crime’ at its base stations
“Transnet Freight Rail has experienced an exponential increase in incidents over the last five years, which has resulted in increased tonnage and revenue losses, and increased repair costs. Over 1 500km of cable has been stolen (a 1 096% increase in the length of cable stolen) in the past five years, with a net financial impact of R4.1-billion,” said Transnet CEO Portia Derby.
Meanwhile, the ESCI Forum has developed a website that collates information from the companies, allowing them to drill down into incidents and see quickly where problems are occurring. A more limited version of the website will also be made available to the public.
Read: Eskom forced to spend big in fight against crime
“The public will be able to see an updated view of the incident trends, the shared industry losses as a result of economic sabotage of critical infrastructure, and a heatmap view of the hotspots of crime, while industry stakeholders will be able to log in and securely interact with the analytics at a more granular level and in a more interactive way,” the forum said. – © 2022 NewsCentral Media