Cable thieves still at it
2006-10-26
FARMERS and businessmen of the Upper Dal Josaphat farm area were smiling after two men were arrested in connection with copper-wire cable theft. But their joy was short lived.
Only two days after the two suspects were released on free bail, another attempt was made to steal the telephone cables for their copper content.
Local farmer Lawrence Lombard woke up at approximately 03:00 last Friday morning and due to all the wire thefts, checked whether the telephone was still working.
He realised that the lines were being stolen and rushed to the Bo-Dal Road. He could see men who were busy cutting over-head wires and alerted the police immediately.
Five police vans were quick to respond, but the thieves had already escaped.
Farmers are now up in arms and feel that they are being failed by both the police and by Telkom.
Their argument is that due to the prevalence of cable theft in this area police should patrol the area regularly.
The farmers also feel that the copper cables should be replaced by optic fibre cables.
Telkom was not prepared to comment on the possibility of replacing the current cables with optic fibre cables, but spokesperson Lulu Letlape did say that cable theft is a serious national problem.
She added that Telkom was working closely with various organisations such as Business Against Crime and police in combating the thefts, as well as implementing their own proactive security measures.
Meanwhile, the residents of the Bo-Dal are currently more often off-line than on.
More
News
|
