A major copper cable theft catastrophe, discovered last week, left all six the town’s municipal boreholes out of order.

Mr Masindi Mapholi, Makhado Municipality’s Director of Technical Services, said on Tuesday that the damaged was estimated at R1 million. He and other municipal officials were shocked when they witnessed the scene where copper cable thieves had gone on the rampage. At the pump stations next to the sewage treatment plant, transformer boxes lay on the ground, having been cut from the poles and power boxes had been stripped. Inside one pump station, a fire had been made to burn the insulation off the cables. Trenches of almost a metre deep had been dug to reach copper cables.

A grave concern is the water supply of the town. Mr Mapholi was asked what would happen with the water supply if pipes on the main supply from the Albasinidam would burst at this stage. He said that there would definitely be a shortage of water to some areas in town. It was not possible to predict when the boreholes would be in working order again. In March this year, residents in Musina suffered a water shortage due to damaged done by cable thieves.

The municipality confirmed that there were no security guards at the pump stations at the time of the theft.

“The security guards were withdrawn due to the municipality’s financial constraints. The situation is slowly recovering and guards will be deployed again. But we installed a security fence,” read the municipal statement. The fences, however, did little to stop the culprits.

Apparently someone from the community observed activity at the pump stations prior to the discovery of the damage and reported it to the municipality. Nothing came of this. Mr Mapholi said they were not sure how many days it took the offenders to bring about the damage, but “it would have seemed only one night with the relevant equipment and tools.”

“We will repair and renovate the system as soon as we can,” he said.

About six weeks ago, cable thieves caused destruction at a sewage pump station near the end of Industria Street. Following that incident, Mr Mapholi remarked that vandalism had escalated to a level where Council could not sustain the repairs. Following the latest incident, Mr Mapholi said that acts like this would result in Council’s closing down.

As in the previous incident, the community was again asked to inform the municipality or the police if they know anything about the suspects. The municipality want to get the message out that the problem of “theft is a priority to be addressed”. Mr Mapholi said that “security is now in place, for example the SAPS”.

Copper cable theft appears to be utterly out of control. Last year, Spoornet reported a daily loss of R1.6million as a result of copper cable theft. Rewards of up to R25 000 were offered for information which would lead to the arrest and conviction of offenders. ESCOM also requested the public to report cable theft and vandalism toll free to 080 011 2722. The person could stay anonymous, should he/she wish to.