Crooks outwitting the good guys

I RECENTLY saw a TV programme about large areas of Johannesburg being unsafe to walk in at night because copper cable theft had caused the street lights to be out of operation.

I need to say that for at least 35 years or more the “good guys” have not managed to beat the “crooks” in this type of problem. At that time I had the overall responsibility for national roads and we embarked on a project to light the freeway between Johannesburg and Pretoria. To our horror, about a week before we were due to switch the lights on, about 25km of copper cables were stolen overnight.

It cost a great deal of money to set up a system to safeguard the cables into the future. Also, at the same time our bridge parapets were aluminium, mainly because of the lighter weight of aluminium. The “crooks” discovered that this was a marketable “product” with the result that we had to change to concrete parapets which, because of their heavier weight increased the loading on the bridge decks and consequently the cost of the bridges. It seems to me that based on the Johannesburg experience and others, the crooks are still outwitting the good guys. MALCOM MITCHELL | Hillcrest