SA’s state-owned enterprises are spending billions of rand every year on security in an effort to clamp down on theft and vandalism of their infrastructure that has at times threatened to shut down the economy.
Now the CEOs of Telkom, Transnet, Eskom and the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) hope to see better results in curbing this scourge by combining their crime-prevention efforts.
The Economic Sabotage of Critical Infrastructure (ESCI) Forum, led by these CEOs, hosted a round-table with key stakeholders on Friday to find solutions and discuss progress in tackling the challenge of theft and vandalism of economic infrastructure.
Economic sabotage of infrastructure owned by Prasa has led to the “near total decimation of the [rail] network”, said Hishaam Emeran, Prasa’s acting CEO.
Prasa regularly experiences rail and cable theft and vandalism of its stations and substations.
Of a total network of 2,300km of signalling cable, 1,000km has been stolen, including 100km of rail, Emeran said, and only 129 of 590 stations are still functional.
“In 2018/2019 we were operating on 40 service corridors, now we are operating on only 15,” he said.
This has led to the number of passengers carried declining from 500-million a year to 17-million.
Prasa is having to spend R7bn a year on security. The total cost to the economy of the deterioration in the operator’s network and service delivery is estimated at R15bn-R20bn per year, said Emeran.
Recounting some of the worst incidents experienced on its pipeline network that transports all of SA’s bulk petroleum products, Transnet CEO Portia Derby told the forum that the utility had situations where the destruction of the pipeline and theft of fuel were so severe that it threatened “drying up” the supply to Gauteng, the country’s economic epicentre.
In 2021, Transnet suffered 118 incidents of vandalism and theft on its pipelines and so far in 2022 there have been 61 incidents. “There came a spike [in incidents] when fuel prices started increasing, with [thieves] targeting diesel rather than other commodities.”
The cost to Transnet and economic losses to the country of these acts of sabotage are staggering. Derby said Transnet spends R400m a year on environmental clean-ups when pipelines carrying fuel are damaged, causing spills.
Cable theft, which affects the parastatal’s freight rail network, eroded earnings from chrome and coal exports by about R30bn over the past year. During this period about 1,500km of cable was stolen, but, as Derby noted, it doesn’t matter if one metre or 60 metres of cable is stolen, the effect on operations is the same as it prevents trains from moving.
The direct revenue loss for Transnet Freight Rail was about R2bn a year. This did not include money the rail operator was forced to spend on security, which amounted to R4bn a year for the group, R1.2bn of which was for the freight rail network.
Collaboration between Transnet and law enforcement has led to more than 1,200 suspects being arrested, but the conviction rate was low and the legal processes very slow, Derby said.
Battery and cable theft, and the vandalism of infrastructure, were an equally large challenge for mobile providers, said Telkom CEO Serame Taukobong. All network providers were under pressure to bring the costs of data down, but the cost of maintaining infrastructure is making this almost impossible, Taukobong said.
According to Derby, while increased investment in private security measures has helped increase the number of arrests made, the conviction rate of those caught for stealing or vandalising was very low. This is one area where collaboration between SOEs can help deliver better results.
While Transnet has seen about 1,200 arrests in the last year, this resulted in only 45 convictions.
“Something must be done [to increase the conviction rate]. We have also so far not been able to catch the kingpins, only the runners.”
Derby said a portion of the R10bn spent collectively by Transnet, Eskom, Prasa and Telkom on security should be used to set up a “friend of the court” in the form of a highly skilled forensics team that can assist law enforcement officers and prosecutors in bringing to book those individuals who were caught.
Update: September 4 2022
This article has with new information.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.