NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO 2596
DATE REPLY SUBMITTED: Monday, 31 October 2011
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: FRIDAY, 09 SEPTEMBER 2011 (INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: NO 28 - 2011)

Mr M S F de Freitas (DA) asked the Minister of Transport:

With reference to his reply to question 1508 on 9 June 2010, (a) what are the statistics of cable theft in each region for the (i) 2008-09, (ii) 2009-10 and (iii) 2010-11 financial years, (b) what action has his department taken to reduce cable theft, (c) what costs have been incurred, (d) what success has been achieved and (e) how many (i) man hours, (ii) transport hours and (iii) electricity hours have been lost as a result? NW3011E

REPLY:

The Minister of Transport:

(a) (i), (ii) and (iii)

(b) The Department of Transport, through its rail agency, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), conducted security, risk, threat and vulnerability assessments that identified hot spots or high-risk areas pertaining to cable theft.  This process informed the development of action plans to address problematic areas, which resulted in tactical deployment and guarding of hot spot areas.  

Over and above this, we have developed a dedicated team that conduct observation duties and patrols, visits to scrap metal dealers and joint actions with other law enforcement agencies.  PRASA has also begun to introduce various technical interventions to mark copper cable to deter theft.  As a long-term solution, PRASA is moving away from copper cable and is gradually introducing fibre optic cabling.  PRASA Security has furthermore developed a security strategy that is aligned to the operational challenges experienced by the Company.

(c)

(d) Arrests made for cable thefts are as follows:

(e) (i) and (ii)

Only minutes of train delays are captured as contained in the table below:

Issued by Parliament, November 23 2011

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