And then our little old family also became part of the crime statistics. Late Friday night, the cable thieves strike. They clearly know what Eskom’s load shedding schedules are. Once the electricity supply is switched off, they can carry out their crime without danger.
Right in front of our house is a strategic lamp post. There are different power cables coming together from the neighborhood. We live in an old neighborhood. So most electricity cables are still made of copper. And that’s exactly what the crooks want.
When we got up on Saturday morning we immediately knew there was something wrong. The electricity was never turned back on later that night. We scold Eskom and make plans to adapt to the circumstance. In our neighborhood there are a bunch of active residents who are all connected on a WhatsApp group.
If one house experiences a problem, the other is immediately notified. So we get the message that the power outage was not Eskom’s fault, but the work of cable thieves.
We then went to look at the post by our door. And wraggies: the copper cable that was routed around the pole to the top was neatly cut off. A heaviness descends upon us. From stories we’ve heard about power outages to residential homes, replacing stolen cables is an expensive and time-consuming task. It’s not just a few hours of work to reconnect a house to the network. This involves, among other things, cutting up the pavement and destroying the plant beds.
In the meantime, we are starting the process of reporting the cable theft and the fact that the entire street’s houses are also without electricity. We first try to leave an urgent message via computer, but one does not actually know how many of your power complaints are on the list and whether the Johannesburg council listens to the messages and responds.
If you try to make contact by phone, you have to go on and on and listen to irrelevant messages through a ghost voice. You cannot talk to a living person.
The next step is to complain to the city councilor for the particular ward. In our case it is a DA member. Our experience from previous service dramas was that she is quite awake and alert, but the complaints must have gotten so bad that she no longer answers the phone herself. This is done by an assistant who assures you that she will convey the news.
So the hours pass without action. The frustration runs high because one does not get to talk to a living being. In order not to suffer losses with the fridge or freezer that can no longer work, we make arrangements with relatives to store perishable goods with them. Luckily we have a gas stove. That way we can at least heat water to wash ourselves and the dishes a bit.
The Saturday passes without any action. So also Sunday and Monday. We are discouraged. You no longer know what to do to resolve the situation. With people being able to do much of their work from home via computer, all is not lost. We are going to charge all applicable batteries and make sure they stay charged.
Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, the technicians from the municipality arrive at our street corner with aluminum cables. The old copper cables are no longer used. The foreman assures me the work will be completed within one hour. It was closer to three times as much. But then we got power again. Then one realizes what a wonderful privilege it is to take a hot bath or shower.
But the whole experience was uninvigorating and numerous questions arise. Why did the municipality only notify its technicians three days after reporting the cable theft and send a team out to replace the cable? Why are frustrated residents not kept informed of what is happening? It is clear that internal and external communication can be improved. Why is there no more success in apprehending the cable thieves? Who is behind the theft? Why are the big fish not caught? It is clear that the buyers of cables are creating a market for stolen goods.
The government has already hinted that cable theft will be declared economic sabotage or even economic treason. What happened to that? For the first six months of this year, the export of scrap metals would be prohibited. Is there progress on that? In an investigation requested by the Department of Trade and Industry, it is said that this crime costs the economy R47 billion annually.
If all the victims such as Eskom, Prasa and Transnet are added together, the damage amounts to R137 million per day. You can only imagine the damage if you can quantify the cost of disruption.
For our family, cable theft was a great frustration and inconvenience with some financial damage. It’s a fairly common problem. In the week following our experience, I heard from at least five other families who had experienced the same problem.
For large companies, cable theft has an enormous impact.
The police will have to act much more efficiently to arrest the crime of cable theft, but it will also require the dedicated cooperation of every citizen to report the criminals.
