Eskom, Transnet, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) and Telkom are intensifying collaborative efforts to tackle rampant theft and vandalism of critical infrastructure, which is taking a multi-billion rand toll on their operations.
Led by the group CEOs of the four entities, the Economic Sabotage of Critical Infrastructure (ESCI) Forum was established to provide a coordinated response to the intensifying issue of infrastructure theft.
The four entities – which on Friday hosted a roundtable on the issue – are at the coalface of economic sabotage and together have experienced a staggering 54 000 incidents annually.
Transnet's Freight Rail business has experienced an "exponential increase" in incidents over the last five years, which has resulted in increased tonnage and revenue losses, and increased repair costs, said Transnet CEO, Portia Derby.
"Over 1 500km of cable has been stolen (a 1 096% increase in the length of cable stolen) in the past five years, with a net financial impact of R4.1 billion. We are confident that the coordinated and focused response by the ESCI Forum will yield positive results."
This was echoed by Prasa action CEO Hishaam Emeran, who said the theft and vandalism of essential economic infrastructure had dealt Prasa and the country's economy a heavy blow.
"We are confident that through the forum, we can indeed turn the tide."
Eskom CEO De Ruyter said the forum was in the process of calculating the cost of economic sabotage on their operations. Given Eskom's own estimates of R16.8 billion, he said he expected the aggregate number to likely be north of R100 billion.
The forum, which was first established in 2020, on Friday highlighted progress in combatting economic sabotage in South Africa. This includes the establishment of a specialised multi-disciplinary unit to address economic sabotage, extortion at construction sites, and vandalism of infrastructure, as well as a Police Task Team on Cable Theft and Damage to Essential Infrastructure.
Regulatory proposals to restrict the trade of illegally obtained scrap and processed metals were also a noteworthy development.
De Ruyter said the utility was encouraged by the support of the security and law enforcement agencies, "including the commitment by the National Prosecuting Authority to commence the prosecution of the many serious crimes that have negatively affected Eskom".
To raise public awareness and enhance data analytics, the forum has developed an app that will provide the public with up-to-date insights into incident trends, shared industry losses and a heatmap view of the hotspots of crime. Industry stakeholders will be able to interact with the analytics at a granular level.