Cable thieves halt trains

Railway tracks that carried 60 per cent of Cape Town’s commuters are nowso picked clean of power cables by looters that families have safely set up home on them. The central line’s plight – which has cut off the city from its biggest township, Khayelitsha – reflects a pillaging frenzy that is estimated to cost the South African economy NZ$18.5 billion a year. South Africa’s government said the looting had come amid a surge in global demand for copper, and that banning exports of scrap metalwas the only solution. Kenya imposed an indefinite ban in January. South Africa’s state power utility Eskom said the ‘‘unrelenting’’ theft of its copper cables resulted in an annual NZ$192.5 million bill for replacements. State freight operator Transnet has reported 1000km of cable stolen in the past year, and 1600 incidents of batteries and other kit being stolen from its locomotives. The plundering is the work of organised crime gangs, often armed with automatic weapons.