The Rising Toll of Copper Theft

25 Aug 2024

Copper theft is a significant and growing issue in South Africa, fuelled by rising unemployment and economic hardship. The country is grappling with two distinct forms of copper theft, petty theft by individuals driven by desperation and sophisticated operations conducted by organised crime syndicates. Both forms of theft are causing widespread disruption, affecting the economy, infrastructure, and service delivery.

According to Stats SA's Quarterly Labour Force Survey, unemployment reached 8.4 million in the first quarter of 2024, with a decrease of 92,000 jobs, particularly in the formal sector. Financial difficulties often lead to desperation, and desperation to increased crime rates, with individuals turning to theft as a means of survival. Copper, due to its easy access, high value, and recyclability, has become a common target for these individuals.

The impact on businesses has been major, with petty thieves, seeing an opportunity and having the means available to execute their crime, stripping electrical cable and copper pipes from air-conditioning units, stealing water pipes and fittings off the wall and out of bathrooms, as well as stripping electrical wiring from equipment and other electrical systems in factories and commercial properties. These thefts not only disrupt essential services but also lead to substantial financial losses for companies. For instance, businesses are forced to halt operations and bear the costs of replacing stolen copper and repairing damaged systems.

Johannesburg's City Power recorded 444 cases of cable theft between December 2022 and February 2023, resulting in R380 million in replacement costs. Similarly, Cape Town faces an ongoing battle with copper theft, costing approximately R2 million per week just to repair damaged streetlights.

On the other hand, organised crime syndicates have taken copper theft to a more sophisticated level. These syndicates often involve employees of utilities, state-owned enterprises, companies, and subcontractors. They steal and sell the copper to both formal and informal scrap metal dealers and recyclers, who reprocess and reintroduce it into the local market or export it. This organised theft significantly threatens the stability of local power supplies and increases costs for utility companies and service providers, ultimately passing the burden onto consumers.

The impact of copper theft on the economy is staggering, with the annual loss estimated between R5-7 billion. This includes about R2 billion needed to replace stolen cables. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime highlights that these thefts not only disrupt local power supplies but also inflate operational costs for businesses and service providers.

To effectively combat copper theft, a comprehensive approach is necessary (Read our Target Hardening article here. This includes strengthening security measures through target hardening to deter theft and implementing broader economic strategies to address unemployment and its related issues. Both immediate and long-term solutions are crucial to safeguarding South Africa's infrastructure and mitigating the economic damage caused by this pervasive crime.

Sources: Corruption Watch, Money Web, Organised Crime and Corruption Watching Projects, Global Initiative Against Transactional Organised Crime Report