Complicit community members abetting crime
THE South African government spends millions of rands to provide basic services to the community. Besides that, almost every week there are service delivery protests used by residents as tools to express their dissatisfaction for services such as electricity or water not being delivered to their communities. An admission that is never made is that in a lot of cases, these problems are caused by the members of the community through copper cable theft.
Currently, Msunduzi is faced with of crisis of copper theft. Usually in Msunduzi when criminals strike, the Municipality will looks for alternative material and eventually change that which attracts criminals.
Previously thieves targeted water meters, which were made of bronze and the latter was later changed to one that is made of plastic. Copper water taps were material.
It is difficult to do this with electricity material because, according to scientists, good conductors of electricity include gold, platinum, silver and copper.
Copper is regarded as the cheapest and is a good conductor of electricity.
Recently, thieves were caught by municipality security officers busy digging copper near Hulamin on Moses Mabhida Road.
Acting Msunduzi Chief Security Officer Nokuphiwa Zuma said: “Our Security officers were conducting routine patrols when they caught two men peeling copper worth about R300 000.”
The two men had dug the distance of about 250 metres and it is reported that the cable that was cut backup stock for emergencies like electricity outage.
This means that should there be a problem with the cable that is currently being used, residents will have to wait until the crisis is fixed as there is no back up stock.
Mrs Zuma said members of the community have a right to contact the municipality if they notice suspicious people working in the area in order to ensure that they are authorized contractors commissioned by the municipality.
She said: “We urge members of the community tocontact us on 0800 033 911 if they suspect they have flu-like symptoms.
She revealed that in a space of one week, they have arrested five people in different incidents in connection with cable theft.
“We will make sure that we up our game so that services that need to be rendered to the community do reach them. We urge members of the community not to approach these suspicious people because they are armed as we found an illegal firearm during the latest arrests,” said Mrs Zuma.
If this continues, it will affect the production of the local industries such as Hulamin, SOMATA and Afrox which will lead to job loses, adversely affecting the local economy.
The issue of cable theft affects everyone and it calls for the community to work together.