Warwick Bruce Chapman

The eThekwini Municipality is simply not doing enough to stem asset losses due to cable theft. As I have explained before to this council, Cape Town has managed, through a well-resourced metals theft combating unit, strict enforcement, and now this initiative to reduce asset losses due to cable theft to a fraction of what it used to be.

There is no reason whatsoever why we should not be reproducing these successes in eThekwini. We are simply not interested in taking this issue seriously enough to muster the political will required to take the measures which have been shown to work in other parts of the country.

This proposal is quite simple. Given the extent of cable theft in our Metro, it is many orders more cost-effective to leave lights in certain high-theft areas on 24 hours to lower the risk of theft, than it is to replace that length of cable.

We can no longer sit back and do nothing about this economic growth sapping crime. I urge you to support this and any other initiatives which seek to reduce cable theft.

Below, please find an extract of the minutes of the eThekwini Council meeting held on 5 September, 2011.

3. Question submitted by Councillor WB Chapman: Cable Theft (27/1/1/5/R):

3.1 What were the cable theft losses in eThekwini for the financial years 2007/2008, 2008/2009, 2009/2010, 2010/2011, 2011/2012 to date?

3.2 Has eThekwini established a specialised unit to combat cable theft?

3.2.1 If yes:-

3.2.1.1 How many permanent members are assigned to the unit; and

3.2.1.2 What budget has been assigned to the unit including the costs of posts permanently assigned t the unit; and

3.2.1.3 Who heads the unit; and

3.2.1.4 When was the unit established?

3.2.1.5 Is the unit focusing on scrap metal dealers across eThekwini?

3.2.1.5.1 If yes:-

3.2.1.5.1.1 How many scrap metal dealers in eThekwini were charged for buying stolen cables during 2010/2011?

3.2.1.5.2 If not, why not?

3.2.2 If not, why not?

3.3 Given that cable theft constitutes damage to public infrastructure necessary for the priority of service delivery in local governments, has eThekwini interacted with National Government with a view to reclassifying cable theft in a more serious crime category?

3.3.1 If yes, please provide a summary of our representation and the response from National Government.

3.3.2 If not, why not?

As Councillor DG Hoorzuk was providing responses, clarity was sought in terms of the relevant Chairperson not providing answers to questions. The Head: Legal Services advised that the Rules of Order stated that the Chairperson must ensure that responses were provided appropriately and that the Chairperson could request any Councillor to provide same. Thereafter, Councillor DG Hoorzuk provided the following respective responses:-

3.1 This is only direct cost, year 2007/2008 R15 608 850, Year 2008/2009 R16 675 844, year 2009/2010 R22 683 307, year 2010/2011 22 206 718, year 2011‑2012 only two months of data would not be measured against annually figures, there had been drastic increase of copper cables theft and electrical Infrastructure since 2007 to date. This was due to the fact that copper was valued at approximately R65. 00 per kg and the demand for exports to India and China were high.

3.2 Yes, a Business Risk Control Branch was started in 2009.

3.2.1.1 There were currently, six members of staff in the division made up as follows:-Three belong to the Risk Section and two investigators and a Senior Manager.

3.2.1.2 The Branch had been assigned a budget of R29 million.

3.2.1.3 The Senior Manager of the branch was Manju Naidoo. The Unions objected both at Local and Cluster Local Labour Forums to the Business Risk organogram being amended to include network theft and investigations section. It took a year and was only finalized in November 2010. The Senior Investigator post for the Network Section had been advertised four times to date and no suitable candidates had been recruited. At present, six Task Teams from the external security providers had been appointed, to patrol, monitor and react to reported incidents of cable theft until the Branch was adequately staffed.

3.2.1.4 2009

3.2.1.5 Scrap dealers

The Unit was focusing on scrap dealers together with Provincial South African Police Services, Non Ferrous Crime Combating Committee – Brigadier Harry and Business against Crime. This Committee under Brigadier Harry is committed to more raids on scrap dealers.

Raids were conducted on suspected dealer premises at least every 3 months with SAPS. The onus ultimately lies with SAPS and NPA in charging and prosecuting these dealers. The Municipality had no direct jurisdiction over these dealers. Council could only advise SAPS the suspected dealers in the industry, surveillance and raids are then conducted by SAPS – Organised Crime Unit.

It must also be noted that illegal “Bucket Shops” represent a major problem as they were unregulated, difficult to locate and contribute to significant quantities of copper and other metals leaving our shores.

Thus far, only a few scrap dealers have received fines from SAPS. There have been no convictions against them to date regarding eThekwini Electricity property.

The Municipality had been awaiting amendments and promulgation of the Second Hand Goods Act for the past two years. This new Act will give law enforcement “more teeth to prosecute dealers who were in possession of metals in their possession where they cannot identify the legitimate source of ownership. There would be stricter fines and sentences to be imposed on these scrap dealers.

Amendments to the legislation have been formulated collectively with Eskom, Telkom, Metrorail and Transnet via the National & Provincial Saps Non Ferrous Crime Combating Committee and Business Against Crime. The Minister of Energy has also recently publicised her support for these amendments. Research has shown that countries like Brazil have banned copper exports which have dramatically reduced copper theft. To get our country to adopt such a decision will require massive support from businesses as well as stakeholders in government.

Dear Editor

Asset losses as a result of cable theft in eThekwini over the past five years amount to nearly R100m. This figure does not take into account losses to consumers caused by the resulting outage or power surge.

In the 2006/7 financial year, cable theft losses in Cape Town were recorded at R22-million. Just a year later losses had been reduced to R496 800, representing a 44-fold decrease from one financial year to the next.

What could possibly explain such a dramatic decline in just one year? The answer is simply that the Cape Town council took a policy decision not to tolerate cable theft any longer and to invest in combating the crime. The council established the Metals Theft Unit or “Copperheads” as a specialised unit of the Cape Town Metro Police to combat the theft of copper and other metals.

The 12-person unit, through tip-offs from the public, as well as proactive intelligence-gathering, was mandated to find, catch and arrest copper thieves. The unit arrests between 200 and 300 per year of which about 50 are council workers. Theft of brass water meters was reduced from 1700 per month in 2007, to 10 per month in 2009.

There is no reason why this success cannot be replicated in eThekwini and other metros. eThekwini’s own attempt to combat cable theft is a unit established in 2009 with a R29m budget and six posts. It has been unable to attract the investigators required to fill the vacant posts in the unit. There have been no convictions of scrap metal dealers in eThekwini since the unit was established.

At a National level, the Second Hand Goods Law which was passed in 2009 has not yet been implemented by SAPS. It creates a solid framework for law enforcement to pursue and prosecute copper thieves and must urgently be implemented.

Copper theft has a direct impact on the lives of our people, and always hits poorer communities hardest. eThekwini then has to spend additional resources replacing infrastructure instead of rolling out more services to the poor.

In my opinion, even if it costs us R30m per year to prevent R30m of cable theft, the measures are worthwhile as they reduce loss of productivity and costly damage to consumer equipment.

Cllr WB Chapman

5 September, 2011
Statement issued by Warwick Chapman, DA Spokesperson Housing and Infrastructure

Answers provided at today’s full council meeting reveal that asset losses as a result of cable theft in eThekwini over the past five years amount to nearly R100m. This figure does not take into account the losses to consumers caused by the resulting outage or power surge.

It is estimated that copper theft costs our economy R10 billion per year, hampering economic growth, productivity and job creation.

In a press statement released by the municipality in May this year, spokesperson Thabo Mofokeng said, “…the theft of cables, electrical conductors and transformers from the eThekwini Electricity network has resulted in significant losses to the Municipality. This not only places a burden on the City’s financial resources but also on its valuable customers that are severely inconvenienced by the supply interruptions arising out of the theft.”

Mr Mofokeng goes on to state that, “there are approximately 130 registered scrap metal dealers and 300 “bucket shop” type dealers in the eThekwini region. This poses enormous pressure on authorities in terms of regular compliance monitoring.”

This growing cable-theft trend threatens the very infrastructure of the City, causing serious damage to electrical substations and necessitating repairs running into millions of rand.

In the 2007/8 financial year cable theft losses for eThekwini were reported by the then Minister for Local Government to be R36-million. In the City of Cape Town over the same period, cable theft losses were recoprted at R496 800. Just a year earlier, in the 2006/7 financial year, cable theft losses in the City of Cape Town were recorded at R22-million.

This represents a 44-fold decrease in losses for the City of Cape Town from one financial year to the next.

What could possible explain such a dramatic decline in just one year? The answer is simply that the Cape Town council took a policy decision not to tolerate cable theft any longer and to invest in combating the crime. During that financial year, Cape Town established the Metals Theft Unit or “Copperheads” as a specialised unit of the Cape Town Metro Police to combat the theft of copper and other metals in the City

The 12-person unit, through tip-offs from the public, as well as proactive intelligence-gathering, was mandated to find, catch and arrest copper thieves. The unit’s success rate speaks for itself:

• Between 200 and 300 people were arrested per year since the Copperheads’ inception.
• On average, about 50 council workers were arrested a year, indicating that in some instances, copper theft from municipal property is an inside job.
• In 2007, when the Copperheads were established, R22 million worth of copper and other metals were stolen. In 2009, that number had fallen to only R500 000.
• Theft of brass water meters was reduced from 1700 per month in 2007, to 10 per month in 2009.

There is no reason why this success cannot be replicated in eThekwini and other metros.

Answers provided today about eThekwini’s own attempt to combat cable theft indicate that the unit established in 2009 has a R29m budget, six staff and has been unable to attract the investigators required to fill the vacant posts in the unit.

Further answers confirmed that there have been no convictions of scrap metal dealers in eThekwini since the unit was established.

National government also has a crucial role to play in combating copper theft. At national level, the DA is putting forward five key proposals to stop copper theft:

• Implement the Second Hand Goods Law of 2009: This law was passed in 2009 and creates a solid framework for law enforcement to pursue and persecute copper thieves. The law has still not been implemented. Once implemented, it will make it much easier to police copper theft.

• Making copper theft a priority crime at the SAPS: This will secure more resources and more experienced personnel for the fight against copper theft, as well as placing more responsibility on SAPS to investigate and resolve copper theft cases.

• Giving copper theft its own crime code at the SAPS: Presently, the SAPS crime database records copper theft in the category “other crimes”. This means that there are no reliable statistics of the incidence of copper theft, hampering the development of a sophisticated strategy to combat copper theft. We therefore propose that copper theft be given its own crime code so that it can be recorded separately.

• Setting copper theft reduction targets at parastatals: The Public Enterprises Minister should set targets to reduce copper theft at each major parastatal, accompanied by a comprehensive strategic plan to meet these targets.

• Close cooperation with industry experts: There exists a reservoir of goodwill from security and copper theft experts to help municipalities and parastatals to improve their security operations. This knowledge should be used more effectively and that starts by taking the problem more seriously and being open to input from outside experts.

We should not forget that copper theft has a direct effect on the lives of our people. Copper stolen from electricity cables disconnects our communities, especially poorer communities. The City then has to spend additional resources replacing infrastructure, money which could be spent rolling out even more services to the poor.

Our experience in Cape Town shows us that a metro police service, when properly trained and led by the right people and given the tools to do its job, can act as a powerful tool in the fight against crime.

In my opinion, even if it costs us R30million per year to prevent R30million of cable theft, the measures are still worthwhile as they reduce loss of productivity and costly damage to equipment caused by the outages and surges which result from cable theft. Cable theft can be combated by this municipality, all we need is the political will to do it properly.

Please report suspicious activities relating to cable theft to 031 311 9611.

Media Queries
Warwick Chapman
083 7797 094
warwickc@da.org.za

NOTE: This statement is here because I played a role in creating it while eThekwini Campaign Manager in the 2011 Local Government Elections.

20 April 2011
Release: immediate

The theft of electricity cables within the eThekwini municipal area has reached dramatic proportions, severely hampering the operation of electricity infrastructure in the city. Officials in the eThekwini Electricity Department have revealed to the DA that there are an average of 15 incidents of cable theft per day, resulting in 300 – 400 light poles being blacked out and plunging key areas into darkness.

This growing cable-theft trend threatens the very infrastructure of the City, causing serious damage to electrical substations and necessitating repairs running into millions of rand. Yet the eThekwini municipality has done virtually nothing to combat the problem and has allowed large portions of major freeways and suburban roads to remain unlit, due to a massive and costly backlog of cables needing replacement.

Cable thieves operate with such impunity in eThekwini that replaced cables are stolen again less than 24 hours after being replaced. The resulting theft increases the danger factor by creating crime-friendly, dimly lit areas, while at the same time causing a danger to traffic on busy, dark freeways.

The theft ofcopper cables in Cape Town was a major problem. The Democratic Alliance city administration took decisive action and established the “Copperheads” unit within the Metro Police. This specialised unit was tasked with combating cable theft as well as seeking out scrap dealers and individuals who were buying stolen cables. The unit has been extremely successful in prosecuting those who commit crimes of sabotage against the City of Cape Town. Such is the success of the unit, that the cost to the city to replacecopper cabling has dropped from R20-million pa to just R500 000 pa.

Today I commit the Democratic Alliance to taking the following action steps within three months of taking office:

- We will establish a “Copperheads” unit within the Metro Police. This unit will be staffed and equipped to fight those criminals who target municipal infrastructure and bring them to justice.

- We will motivate for the re-classification of the theft of electricity cables as sabotage to municipal infrastructure. This classification of sabotage carries a far heavier sentence in the courts.

- We will table a bylaw amendment to regulate and scrutinise scrap dealers who are buying stolen municipal infrastructure. Should scrap dealers be found to be in possession of stolen municipal infrastructure their business licence will be revoked.

The DA led city of Cape Town has shown that this scourge can be beaten if the necessary resources are provided and there is the political will to tackle the problems. We believe our plan will decisively overcome the challenges and ensure that the DA keeps the lights on for all the citizens of eThekwini.

Media Enquiries:

Cllr Ronnie Veeran
DA eThekwini Mayoral Candidate
082 371 7698

Mbali Ntuli
Mayoral Spokesperson
072 118 8556