Eskom, Transnet, Telkom and the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) have all made submissions to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (Dtic) supporting the proposed change in legislation.
Last month, Trade Minister Ebrahim Patel gazetted a proposal for a temporary six-month export prohibition on ferrous and non-ferrous waste and scrap metal in a bid to curb the widespread theft of copper cables and steel infrastructure.
The proposal also calls for a permit system for the export of specified semi-processed metal products and blacklisting dealers who break the law and buy stolen cables.
As damage and theft of critical infrastructure have cost the economy billions of rand, affecting business operations and slowing down growth, the group chief executives of the four parastatals have revived the Economic Sabotage of Critical Infrastructure (ESCI) Forum formed two-years ago to tackle the problem head-on.
Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter said on Friday that the annual productivity losses incurred by Eskom alone for copper theft were around R16.8 billion while the economic damage of copper theft was estimated at more than R45bn annually.
De Ruyter said the struggling power utility had thus made submissions to the Dtic and fully supported the proposals made by Minister Patel.
“We have in fact gone one step further and we have recommended intermittent bans depending on the extent of the crime, and also dependent on the extent of demand in the export market,” De Ruyter said.
“If we empower the Dtic to prevent the commodity cycle driving criminality in South Africa, so that was our additional contribution to what the dtic has proposed.”
This comes as one of South Africa’s trading partners, the EU, has objected to the scrap metals export ban, saying the ban may contravene key World Trade Organisation provisions.
In its submission, the EU said South Africa should first put measures in place at a domestic level before contemplating an export ban.
Copper cable theft; electricity poles and battery theft from telecoms base stations; electricity theft and illegal connections; vandalism and malicious damage to property; extortion and bribery; hostage taking; the burning of train coaches and theft of rail lines have all increased over the recent while.
Transnet chief executive Portia Derby said the group had experienced an exponential increase in incidents over the past five years, which has resulted in increased tonnage and revenue losses, and increased repair costs.
“The two affected operating divisions are Transnet Pipelines with a volume loss of 31 million litres and Transnet Freight Rail losing 1 500km of cable over the past five years, with a financial impact of R4.1bn,” Derby said.
“Looking at our collective budget, I think the four of us, without the rest of the industry, are spending close to R10bn per annum on security. So that’s a huge budget.”
According to a presentation by Telkom data science executive Stefan Steffen, the four organisations have suffered a direct loss of R1.4bn in 54 000 theft and vandalism incidents recorded over the past 12 months.
However, criminality appears to be uncontrollable as out of the 1 249 arrests made for copper theft so far, only 45 convictions have been made and the kingpins responsible for larger crime syndicates have not been caught.
Telkom group executive for safety, security and forensics Pat Mazibuko called for harsher penalties, saying the sentence of 20-years imprisonment has not been enough to deter the vandalism of infrastructure.
“There’s a call that we would want to make, that is to have the critical infrastructure sabotage being made a Schedule 5 (criminal offence),” Mazibuko said.
“We believe that if it is escalated to that level it will basically bring about an end to this impunity and also create some deterrence, among other issues.”
BUSINESS REPORT