IZINYOKA DID IT AGAIN

BY NOMALUNGELO BOOI

Copper and electricity cable thieves have become so emboldened they no longer bother to carry out their nefarious deeds under the cover of darkness. They don’t fear the law, or the consequences should they be caught.

However, their criminal actions have far-reaching effects on residents and businesses in Nelson Mandela Bay already struggling to work around crippling bouts of load-shedding.

This weekend, a large part of the metro was left without power after thieves dug up electricity cables, a power station exploded and an insulator burned out.The harbour was one of the areas affected.

Bay electricity and energy political boss Luxolo Namette said a task team had been formed to deal with the rampant theft

.“We meet every week to see what we can do,” he told the Weekend Post, adding that the cable theft and vandalism was hitting the metro hard financially.

It is all good and well to form a task team and to meet once a week to discuss what needs to be done to combat these criminal activities.But what is actually being done? Please tell us.

South Africans are more than weary of the same tired responses being trotted out each time a problem is raised.

The “we’ve formed a special task team” or a commission of inquiry, or whatever, no longer holds water. People are gatvol.

This is a question we’ve asked before and we’ll ask it again. Where are the metro police? Where is the intelligence-gathering by the SAPS on the criminal networks believed to be largely behind the cable thefts?

This country is being openly stripped bare by criminals who, clearly, have no fear of its severely under-resourced and poorly trained law enforcement agents.

The syndicates are suspected in some cases of working in cahoots with corrupt municipal officials and police officers.

Tackling these cable thefts needs to be addressed urgently, and properly, not with words but with actions.

It needs a joint effort between police and intelligence officials to identify the people behind these networks, and those collaborating with them, and to bring the full force of the law down on them.

If we don’t act now, there’ll be nothing left to protect soon and the investments we so desperately need to create jobs will blow right past us.