Sepadi Nkadimeng, executive for corporate security and investigations at Telkom, says the government must urgently create legislation and special courts to combat the crisis of infrastructure vandalism.
“Infrastructure vandalism is actually getting out of hand. Though we're trying to manage it from our side it is now attacking the entire country, no longer just certain individual entities like ourselves.”
Though the main threat is from highly organised criminal syndicates, others are now getting in on the act.
“It's no longer just syndicates, ordinary people are now attacking our infrastructure because they think that's how they can make a quick buck.”
Infrastructure that was not targeted in the past is now being raided.
“We're seeing new trends coming on board, like stealing cables out of robots, because we have a lot of people who are hungry, who are not working, who will take any opportunity to steal cable and other infrastructure and resell it at a scrapyard. That's why our cases keep on increasing.”
By 2017 the threat to Telkom operations was deemed to have become “very dire and very serious” and it set up a dedicated intelligence gathering unit to fight the scourge, says Nkadimeng.
It is now a war against infrastructure “sabotage”, including widespread cable theft and theft of batteries from its more than 7,500 cellphone towers, he says. “Crime syndicates are taking our infrastructure across the entire country.”
They're highly organised and their operations are well informed, carefully planned and slickly executed.
“Though we have armed response activated from our control room they're so quick that by the time we get there they're gone,” along with Telkom's batteries and cables.
The criminals clearly have a detailed knowledge of the infrastructure, he says.
“We haven't confirmed that they have insider information, but we're thinking they know exactly what infrastructure we have at particular sites to the extent that this could only come from inside information.”
Nkadimeng says Telkom is working with the police and the Hawks, but most arrests of “hard-core infrastructure criminals” are the result of Telkom's own in-house intelligence network, including the infiltration of syndicates.
More than 3,000 arrests have been made since 2017, with cases opened against 2,549 individuals and 523 people convicted.
“We give [the National Prosecuting Authority] all the relevant information and follow up all the court cases until the end. We're happy we're seeing very long sentences being given to criminals who have really been bombarding us over a long period.”
Telkom is not so happy with the number that are paroled.
“That is a serious concern for us. We really need government to change the legislation because we're seeing these people being released early when they've been sentenced for much longer periods.”
They're not going to win the war against infrastructure sabotage as long as the culprits believe that even if they do get caught and jailed they'll get an early release, he says.
Most of those who are paroled get rearrested and are then given a longer sentence without parole. “But it's becoming a vicious circle because while you're trying to eliminate criminals by putting them in jail, others keep going out,” Nkadimeng says.
The ease with which they get bail does not help. “We have our own investigators who always sit with the prosecutors to make sure we oppose bail. It's a serious problem for us.”
The creation of special courts dedicated to prosecuting infrastructure vandalism cases more speedily is a national imperative
Telkom wants to see the legal process speeded up. When culprits are eventually sentenced it's often after as many as 21 court appearances.
“One of our requests to government has been for special courts to handle critical infrastructure cases so it doesn't take so long while we are suffering from the consequences out there. We've really been trying to influence government to come up with that kind of court that can speed up the process.”
Given the economic and security threat to the country from infrastructure sabotage the creation of special courts dedicated to prosecuting infrastructure vandalism cases more speedily is a national imperative, he says.
“If we let these criminals do what they wish then tomorrow we may not have communication. You and me may not be able to have this conversation. We can see what happens when the trains don't run because of cable theft, or when we don't have power from Eskom.”
During stage 6 load-shedding in 2022 there was a sharp increase in the pillaging of infrastructure, with cellphone tower companies recording a 250% spike in the loss of generators, he says.
In the half year to September last year 61 Telkom sites “fell victim to total vandalism necessitating reconstruction and reinforcement of security measures”.
Telkom's security budget has had to be increased by 20%, he says.
So the lack of appropriate legislation is “becoming a really serious concern. Somehow, government must come on board and try to make this a sufficiently serious offence for those committing this kind of crime”.
It's a battle Telkom has been fighting with the government for four years. “First, we along with other state entities damaged by infrastructure vandalism requested a critical-infrastructure unit within SAPS.”
This was finally created last year, six years after Telkom flagged infrastructure vandalism and sabotage as a serious threat to the country's communications network.
“Now we've been arguing to have critical-infrastructure courts so we don't have serious cases sitting on court rolls for so long that we lose track of them.”
The recently enacted Criminal Amendment Act, together with the critical-infrastructure unit, has helped to ensure longer sentences for infrastructure vandalism, but the parole issue needs to be dealt with, he says.
Other emergency steps Telkom wants from the government include tighter regulation of scrap metal dealers and legislation to ensure that anyone found in possession of critical infrastructure such as cables without papers is immediately arrested.
“We still lack that kind of legislation, and we need it. Part of our engagement with government is to change the legislation to reduce the burden of proof required. Now, if we find someone with cable we need to prove who it belongs to, where it comes from. If you're in possession and you don't have papers you must be arrested.”
In spite of Telkom’s efforts there were at least 20,000 attacks on its network sites in 2023, more than 4,000 up on 2021.
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