SA’s criminals are now smoking stolen fibre cables

The last thing one would think of smoking is a fibre cable, but apparently some cable thieves do.

At least one major fibre network operator (FNO) in South Africa has learnt that criminals are stealing parts of its fibre cabling and smoking them.

MyBroadband recently approached some of the country’s major FNOs to gauge the extent crime has on network uptime and rollouts.

The website reports that the big drive to expand fibre-to-thehome connectivity to less-affluent areas has meant that crime has now become a bigger headache for FNOs than in the past.

One of the drivers for fibre cable theft cited by MetroFibre optical assurance manager Johan Booysen is for smoking the cables.

He said it had come to their attention that some thieves are stealing the strength member of the fibre core for its glass. This is then crushed and smoked.

MyBroadband noted that there have been numerous instances where analyses of illegal drugs found around the world contained pieces of crushed glass. This included the highly addictive township drug, nyaope.

Nyaope – also known as whoonga – is a psychoactive street drug cocktail of low-grade heroin, cannabis, antiretroviral drugs and bulking agents.

The latter can include milk powder, rat poison, bicarbonate of soda and even pool cleaner.

The National Institutes of Health says the use of nyaope has become widespread in townships since it emerged in the 2000s in the Pretoria areas of Soshanguve, Mamelodi and Atteridgeville.

It was criminalised in April 2014, closing a loophole in the Drugs and Trafficking Act that allowed nyaope dealers and users to avoid jail time.

Essentially, a person can be arrested for possessing dagga and heroin – the core ingredients in nyaope – but the concoction itself was never classified, meaning you couldn’t be arrested for selling or using it.

Since the 2014 amendment, any drug concoction is illegal.

Nyaope is rolled with cannabis or tobacco and smoked or injected, usually in rudimentary and unsanitary conditions.

Some users also inject themselves with blood from another user who is “high” after receiving a nyaope injection (a so-called “Bluetooth” drug).

Cathy Vos, from the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, said that the physiologically addictive substance of nyaope is the heroin.

“If you have ever watched the movie, Basketball Diaries, [the character played by a young] Leonardo DiCaprio is kept in a room and is forced to stay clean to kick the habit.

“That is what heroin does, and this is what is contained in nyaope. It’s terrible to see, but the withdrawals from heroin are the worst,” she added.