Cape Town slashes copper theft

2008-04-30 19:31

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town says it has slashed its copper cable theft figures from R22m to less than half a million rand in just one year.

Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi told Parliament recently that cable theft had cost six metropolitan municipalities a total of R71.8m over the past year.

This ranged from R36m for Ethekwini metro to R496 800 for Cape Town, he said.

Councillor Pieter van Dalen, head of the City's copper task team known as the Copperheads, said on Wednesday that the city recorded losses of R22m in the 2006/7 financial year.

"This [the drop] is a tremendous achievement for the City of Cape Town," he said.

He said news of Cape Town's success had spread to other parts of the country and the Copperheads were receiving at least ten tip-offs a week on their hotline.

"One caller from Brits was extremely frustrated that they did not have a similar task force in the North West Province, where copper cable is being brazenly hacked out in broad daylight.

"Unfortunately our mandate is restricted to curbing the problem within the City of Cape Town's area of jurisdiction," he said.

- SAPA