Infrastructure vandalism costs industry

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THEFT and vandalism of electricity, rail and telecoms infrastructure is bleeding the local industry as local firms continue to report multiple cases, piling pressure on margins.
While the government has banned the export of scrap metal to neighbouring South Africa, the local trade of scrap within the informal sector remains loosely controlled and monitored and continues to offer an elastic demand for vandalised infrastructure.

In an update recently, fixed network operator TelOne said it incurs huge costs in the form of replacement costs and funds injected to curb the vandalism, with the estimated revenue losses averaging US$1 million annually.
TelOne reported an increase in the number of infrastructure vandalism cases with vandals mostly targeting copper installations that currently make up more than 60 percent of the network.