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Johannesburg - State-owned transport group Transnet hopes to save millions of rands by turning to fibre-optic cables in a bid to ease copper cable theft.
"The operations at our freight rail division have been impacted by theft of copper cables," said acting Transnet CEO, Chris Wells. "We've implemented programmes in areas that are vulnerable".
Wells, speaking at the presentation of Transnet's annual results to end-March, said copper cable theft was hindering exports in the Ermelo/Ogies region in the northern Mpumalanga province. Replacing the cables would cost "millions of rands", he said.
In early June, Transnet Freight Rail, the rail arm of holding company Transnet, had to cancel trains carrying export coal because of copper cable theft.
"Three weeks ago, one kilometre of cable was stolen in a single action. Just think about that weight and the complexity of how they got it out," said Wells, referring to the way syndicates operate.
There are pitfalls to this solution because some undiscriminating crime syndicates pulled up fibre-optic cables, believing them to be copper.
"Eventually, when they pull it out and they see it's not the right stuff, they dump it and just move onto the next area," Wells said.
"But we've put a lot of effort into policing and forensics to find out who the syndicates and masterminds are, and we have been successful," he said.
Wells did not disclose how many trains had to be cancelled, or how much money was lost as a result of the theft.
- Fin24.com