"I’m without words," said Mr Freddy Mamuremi, a manager at the Makhado Municipality’s Department of Technical Services, following yet another incident of copper wire theft which resulted in over R25 000’s worth of damages.

On Saturday, December 9, a routine maintenance inspection revealed that copper thieves had stripped one of the municipality’s sewage pumping stations near SAB in the industrial area. The resulting power failure caused the sewage pump station to overflow with sewage.

Mr Mamuremi said that this recent act of copper wire theft highlights the tremendous strain that this kind of criminal behaviour places on the municipality’s infrastructure and service delivery.

Over the last couple of months, copper thieves targeted several key installations with regard to the municipality’s infrastructure, such as the municipal borehole and electrification network.

Mamuremi said the municipality is growing tired of copper wire thieves as it stops them from rendering services to rural and local communities. These communities then blame the municipality for the resulting problems.

Mamuremi said the time has come for all members of the public to come forward with information that can lead to the arrest of the perpetrators. If they can stop the occurrence of copper theft, Mamuremi said, the municipality can start concentrating on more urgent matters such as the upgrading of the town’s dilapidated sewerage system. Members of the public who have information about these criminal activities are urged to phone their nearest police station.