The body of a cable thief was found next to the tools of his trade on the outskirts of Empangeni last week.
He was callously abandoned by his partners in crime who fled the scene with some stolen cable, causing another costly power outage.
Despite the dangers involved, cable thieves are not deterred and the scourge continues unabated.
Collectively, cable theft wreaks havoc on our economy and continuously disrupts key daily operations vital to the public’s well-being.
Like drug dealers, cable thieves must be declared enemies of the people.
It is imperative that a solution be found to stop them, but how?
Since policing thousands of kilometres of cable throughout the country is an impossibility, the only options seemingly available to make inroads in curbing the problem, are the law and the market.
The current punishment meted out to cable thieves are obviously not stringent enough to deter them. Perhaps heavyweight sentencing and compulsory long-term prison sentences – justified by the severity of consequences their actions are having on the country – will have some effect.
The most effective method, of course, will be to completely shut down the trade, banning the purchase of cable.
Logistically, however, this also poses difficulties.
One assumes most scrap metal dealers run honest businesses and since thieves mostly burn away the outer cable covers, making identification impossible, it isn’t always possible for them to make a judgement call on whether the goods offered them are stolen.
But we know many dealers are ‘partners in crime’, which brings us back to the law.
If dealers know they will face compulsory long-term prison sentences if caught, more doors will be shut on the cable peddlers.
