South Africa’s rail and energy network must put an end to cable theft

The recovery of South Africa’s two largest state-owned companies, which have been plagued by corruption and theft for years, is based on one common thread: protecting thousands of kilometres of cables from theft and rolling out more. Both freight forwarder Transnet and power utility Eskom are fighting to keep lines that typically contain copper, which criminals steal and sell for scrap. While copper theft is a problem plaguing operators worldwide, the economic impact of theft on South Africa’s rail and electricity networks alone was more than R45 billion in the year to March 2022 due to replacement costs and lost revenue, Corruption Watch said in a report. Crime continues to cause delays and increase costs for Transnet, the company said on Monday as it reported a full-year loss. Although the company has been working on a turnaround strategy for almost a year and has been tackling cable theft across its network, vandals still managed to steal 1,013 kilometres of lines in the year to the end of March, the company said. At Eskom, the theft of copper cables, overhead lines and copper in conductors costs the company between R5 and R7 billion annually, plus another R2 billion to replace the stolen cables, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said in a report.