South Africa’s state-owned enterprises have joined hands in the fight against vandalism and the theft of copper cables, railway lines and cellphone tower batteries that is costing the country tens of billions of rand a year.
The Economic Sabotage of Critical Infrastructure (ESCI) Forum today hosted a high-profile round table with key stakeholders to find solutions and discuss progress in tackling the widespread theft and vandalism of economic infrastructure.
The ESCI Forum is led by the group chief executives of Eskom, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), Telkom and Transnet.
The economic toll of theft and vandalism across the country has reached a point where drastic measures are needed.
Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter called on community activism as a possible solution to dealing with incidents of theft and vandalism of infrastructure.
“Electricity infrastructure is central to the country’s economy, growth and development, therefore every citizen, every business and the [state] has a role to play in stopping the devastation, sabotage and destruction of critical infrastructure,” de Ruyter said.
There has recently been a surge in 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.
Metals theft impacts on power supply, leaves trains unable to operate and causes massive damage to public facilities throughout the country.
The economic damage resulting from copper theft alone has been estimated at more than R45 billion annually.
Transnet group chief executive Portia Derby said Transnet Freight Rail has experienced an exponential increase in incidents over the past 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 percent increase in the length of cable stolen, in the past five years, with a net financial impact of R4.1 billion.
“We are confident that the co-ordinated and focused response by the ESCI Forum will yield positive results.”
The Forum has developed a progressive user-friendly app that aims to create awareness on the issue of economic sabotage of critical infrastructure, while enabling impacted industry players to benefit from insights that are more current.
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 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.
Telkom chief executive Serame Taukobong said the country’s critical infrastructure was a platform for economic activity and a catalyst for growth that needed to be protected by all.
“Telkom Group is characterised by high levels of crimes of cable theft/sabotage, battery theft and vandalism of infrastructure,” he said.
“Therefore, it is incumbent upon every citizen to protect and report infrastructure crimes.”
BUSINESS REPORT