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SA: Cape Town: Cable theft: 170 arrests in three months

WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.

Original Post Date: 2007-12-02 Time: 00:00:00  Posted By: Jan

By An(233)él Powell

Work by the City of Cape Town’s dedicated cable theft unit has led to at least 170 arrests in the past three months, making it essential that the unit be “beefed up”.

DA councillor Paddy Chapple said the city’s Non-ferrous Metal Theft Task Team needed to be bolstered to keep up with the high number of cable theft incidents.

A report of the city’s law enforcement activities in August, September and October revealed that police officers had dealt with cases ranging from a shark alert on Fish Hoek beach to the arrest of a pastor for rape.

But cable theft and damage to council property accounted for more than a quarter of major incidents during the three-month period.

Two people were arrested in Lansdowne in August for stealing cannon shells. A few days later, two people were arrested for stealing cables from Maitland Cemetery.

In two separate incidents on September 12, seven suspects were arrested for cable and copper theft. In the first incident, four suspects were found with 26 manhole steps.

The following day, a sub-station was vandalised, and more than 13kg of copper was confiscated from a scrapyard in Atlantis.

Copper cable thieves went on a four-day spree between September 18 and 21.

Two suspects were caught burning copper wires from appliances on the N1. At least 50 metres of copper cables were stolen from the underground floodlight cables at the Macassar Sports Field.

The following day another 50m of underground cables were stolen from a depot in Somerset West.

It was also reported that cables were being burnt at the Valhalla Library while four people were seen trying to cut wooden poles with high voltage cables at the Fisantekraal Pump Station.

Members of the cable theft unit also confiscated illegal copper and scrap from scrapyards in Kraaifontein and Atlantis during this period.

Athlone Power Station was hit several times by cable thieves. In one incident 12 rolls of cable were removed, while in another almost 20kg of cable was stolen.

Joseph Ross of the city’s safety and security department said the incident statistics showed that “law enforcement officers performed their duties under extreme difficulties” and that hot spots had to be identified by joint operations because of manpower shortages.

He said the “depleted level of staff and resources” were “insufficient for providing acceptable service delivery” and that it was “vital that vacant posts be filled”.

The Metro Police, established when traffic services, law enforcement and the city police were amalgamated into the Cape Town Metropolitan Police Service, was split again into three entities in July.

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      • Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20071130072902928C518864