Brazen copper thieves strike at traffic lights
For most people, winter is orange season. For cable thieves it’s an opportunity to board trucks carrying refrigerated containers. Armed with pangas, knives or hacksaws, they strip off copper cables before burning their plastic lining on the roadside and allegedly sell it to scrap dealers.
They brazenly board vehicles on their travels, especially at traffic lights because the trucks take a while get moving after having stopped at a red light.
The scourge in the area from Isipingo to the port, “anywhere near a depot” is at its worst during ‘reefer season’,“ said Aveshni Govender of Alan’s Container Service, a company that repairs refrigerated containers and replaces cables.
“We’ll replace three to four cables a day,” she told the Independent on Saturday.
“Reefer” is truck parlance for a refrigerated semi-trailer.
To the citrus industry the seasonal cable theft is “an intense nuisance and real problem running containers with very highly controlled temperatures,” according to Dave Watts, a logistics consultant for the Citrus Growers’ Association.
“Markets like South Korea, China and Japan have very strict protocols.”
A transport company owner, who did not wish to be named for fear of being targeted, said depots would not accept a refrigerated container that had been stripped of its cable and the onus would be on him to replace it at a cost of about R7 000 each.
Driving around the area of South Coast Road, he questioned the intentions of shabby-looking pedestrians “walking around with bags”. One wandered through traffic lined up at a traffic light, seemingly aimlessly, until he took a focused look at the spot on a horse and trailer where cables are situated.
A mess of ash lined the pavement where, the businessman said, plastic lining was burnt off the 15m to 18m of copper cabling. He questioned the credibility of messy scrap dealers in the surroundings.
Another area where trucks were vulnerable, he pointed out, was in the stretch of road as the M7 meets Solomon Mahlangu (Edwin Swales) Drive under the South Coast Freeway (M4), which was unlit and dark even during daytime.
At peak hour, when trucks are stacked and moving slowly, they are also vulnerable, he said.
The business owner said he battled to get the police interested in the problem.
“Two of my drivers have been able to make affidavits at the Wentworth SAPS but they won’t open a case,” he said, adding that, in heavy traffic, it would often be difficult for a driver to see a thief on his rig.
Asked for comment about the problem in the area, police said they could only comment if a case number was provided.
Word in the transport fraternity is that a cable thief was recently caught under a truck as it moved off and was killed.
“I don’t know how much these cable thieves make but, really, I would happily attach a R100 note to the cables just to have them not rip them off the trucks,” said the transport company owner.
He believes copper cable theft brings in “good money”.
“Steal 10 a day and make R1 000, that’s easy money.”
Govender said her company had suggested that truck owners chain the cables down, but the thieves simply cut the chains.
“On Saturday we chained a cable and on Sunday we found the cable was gone. The chain system was all gone too,” said the transport company owner.
Outside of “reefer season”, cables that illuminate the trailers and provide power to the rear lights and anything else of value, such as tarpaulins and toolboxes, could also be prey to roadside thieves.
-IOL
In other news – Connie Ferguson’s R5 million car leaves Mzansi speechless – WATCH
Mzansi actress and producer Constance Connie Ferguson is one of the country’s most decorated stars. She was born on June 10, 1970. She is popular for playing Karabo Moroka in South Africa’s most popular soapie Generations between 1994 and 2010.
She returned to the show in 2014 when they were rebranding to Generations: The Legacy. Connie Ferguson (the Masilo) married fellow actor Neo Matsunyane in 1993. Whom she shares a daughter. They divorced in 1998, after five years of marriage. Learn More
