City of Cape Town tackles cable theft

Rhodé Marshall
19 June 2007

Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille is attending a summit today that aims to tackle copper cable theft within the city -- a problem that the city has been grappling with for many months.

The summit being held Tuesday at the Cape Town Civic Centre, will have representatives from the business field, the Cape Chamber of Commerce and the scrap metal industry, who are all affected by it.

In 2006, the illegal trade cost the City of Cape Town R22 million to replace, and this figure excludes labour.

Robert McDonald, spokesperson for the mayor, says the amount of money being lost and the problem of cable theft does not meet the mission the mayor has set for the city.

The damage and loss that comes with the trade has a negative impact on businesses, and ultimately the economy.

McDonald says: "The summit brought together people in the business field who would love for this problem to be tackled so that even those who are affected by power shortages will have their problem solved."

Comments

Anonymous said…
I really think it is about time someone does something to correct this problem.The South African Police is so busy they don't have the manpower to patrol cables or be on the look out for cable thieves.They can't even handle the crime in the city let alone cable theft.

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