Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Eskom’s cable theft crisis
Outages continue despite an array of prevention strategies
BRAZEN thieves dig up, cut and remove metres of Eskom copper cable every day leaving residents feeling hopeless and fearful of electricity hikes.
It is believed thieves cut down overhead cable and dig for underground cable, remove it and break into sub-stations.
Newly installed copper cable along Lansdowne road near Site C in Khayelitsha as well as Swartklip Road has been extracted, with more stolen daily around parts of Khayelitsha.
Street light cable, as well as heavyduty cable which supplies power to homes, has been stolen in recent months, but residents feel Eskom is not doing enough to stop the thieves.
The parastatal has lost approximately R1.7 million in the city since the beginning of the financial year to date.
According to Eskom, cable theft hotspots include Inkanini, Zwezwe, Harare, Makhaza and Site B.
Other hotspots are Joe Slovo in Milnerton, Gugulethu, Nyanga, Philippi West and Weltevreden Valley.
It costs approximately R958 per metre to replace stolen cable.
While the state-owned enterprise bleeds money, residents of Khayeltisha claim Eskom is not doing enough to curb the theft.
“We watch copper thieves help themselves to Eskom cable every day. When we call their Cable Theft Unit, we are often told that they are busy in other areas. Police often arrive after the fact, so it really leaves one hopeless,” said Xabiso Hobongwana, who lives just metres away from where he claimed thieves often dig up cable.
Eskom spokesperson Kyle Cookson said the power utility has implemented various strategies and explored many options.
“We’ve had several engagements with community leaders and members of the community with regard to vandalism and theft of copper cables.
“We have also installed tags anddevices along the cable routes. These devices would send signals to the control centre whenever there’s attempted cable theft. In some areas we used ready-mix concrete to cover the cables and have also deployed security at different sites to safe-guard the cables.”
This is little comfort to Hobongwana and his neighbours, who say they often have to deal with power outages.
“Eskom must know what is going on here because these guys know the exact location of the cable and they do not struggle to get it. We often awake to total darkness because of power failures caused by these people and no one seems to be doing anything about this,” said Hobongwana.
Billions of rands are lost to cable theft across the country. Over the past few years Eskom has lost a total of about R2 billion.
A total of 3 432 incidents of cable and pylon theft were reported in 2017 alone.
Earlier this year, the Public Investment Corporation agreed to give a R5bn bridging loan to Eskom for one month.
In addition to the loan, Eskom has approached other lenders as the utility needs total funding of R20bn.
In some areas we used ready- mix concrete to cover the cables and have also deployed security
Kyle Cookson Eskom spokesperson