The inability of the criminal justice system to effectively deal with copper and cable theft coupled with vandalism of essential infrastructure came out at a consultative meeting held at Centlec headquarters in Bloemfontein, Wednesday (03/08).
This challenge is noted with a huge backlog of unresolved criminal cases of the rampant crimes.
This fact-finding meeting aims at presenting solutions to resolve increasing cable and copper cases plus deliberate vandalism of infrastructure by syndicates.
The syndicates target various private-public entities such as MTN, Vodacom, Telkom, Eskom, Transnet, and municipal infrastructure.
Of the more than 210 cases Centlec opened, only three cases have been finalised in court, highlighting the criminal and justice system’s inability to effectively handle these crimes. These cases cover the period of 2019 to 2022, before April this year.
Malefane Sekoboto, Centlec’s chief executive officer, has raised grave concerns about the lack of progress of investigations and finalisation of pending cases despite culprits caught with the loot and on premises ripping infrastructure apart to steal copper cables.
He said the entity has suffered approximately R1.87 million in replacement of stolen copper cables and repair of damaged infrastructure for the duration in question. “This result in failure to render good service to businesses and causes the economy to suffer,” said Sekoboto.
According to him, this inability also extends to investigative police officers understanding the nature of cases. “They seem to misinterpret the nature of cases, and this is a concern as we depend on the police to further investigate cases to ensure we deal with theft and vandalism of essential infrastructure,” said Sekoboto.
Free State’s chief prosecutor, Sello Matlhoko, pointed that foreign nationals were chief culprits involved in cable and copper theft. “At the level of National Prosecution Authority, we have unfortunately lost capable officials that have been dealing with such cable and copper theft, including vandalism of essential infrastructure which harm the economy.”
