Dark festive season

Angela Sibanda, Chronicle Reporter
RESIDENTS in some Bulawayo suburbs experienced a dark festive season following rampant and escalating cases of copper cables theft.

The issue of copper cable theft has become a daily challenge and residents are appealing to responsible authorities to take action.

Residents suspect that some Zesa workers and former employees are behind the copper cables thefts.

Zesa estimates that it is currently losing at least US$100 million per year to theft and vandalism.

Areas affected by severe power outages include parts of Nkulumane, Pelandaba, Luveve, Sunninghill, Burnside and Mahatshula, among others.

Ms Peggy Mthunzi, a Lochview resident, said copper cable theft has become a weekly occurrence.

“It has become a weekly thing and we can go up to three weeks without Zesa.

These thieves usually strike at around 2am.

We have resorted to using firewood and gas, which is very costly because we would have bought our prepaid Zesa tokens,” said Ms Mthunzi.

She also expressed concern over the delayed response by Zesa to attend to power outages in their area.

“Zesa people delay coming to repair and the last time we called them, we had to pay the technicians to fix the problem.

And the issue of us having to buy replacement cables is another financial burden we have to bear,” she said.

Another resident Mr Lungile Ngwenya from Sunninghill suburb said the problem had become worse in the past six months and residents had resorted to forming night patrol teams to hunt down cable thieves.

“We have a neighbourhood watch, but the area is too big and we can’t cover it all.

This place also has a lot of private properties where our teams cannot go through and these particular places are hot spots for cable thefts,” he said.

“We need more cooperation from Zesa.

We are living in a world of technology and these companies should have ways of monitoring cable tampering, especially now that they know the hotspots.”

Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube said they had received a number of reports on copper cable thefts and had so far arrested some suspects.

“Last month we received a report of a vehicle with South African number plates that was moving around and it dropped a tyre.

“When members of the public got close, they realised that it was stashed with a lot of copper cables.

“Let us join hands as communities and fight this crisis that threatens our economy.

We also urge members of the public to report cases early for early responses,” Insp Ncube said.