Copper cables top criminals shopping lists

The Northern Industrial area in Windhoek, was this week yet again been hit by copper cable theft which led to the disruption of services of most businesses operating in the area.

Head: Corporate Communications & Public Relations, Oiva Angula in a statement said this is the third time this month that the area has fallen victim to this crime and Telecom Namibia is greatly concerned of the pattern that is emerging in this area and is committed to working with police in the area to curb any recurrences.

“The latest incident occurred at about 2h00 on Wednesday, 15 February, when cable thieves unearthed a 1400 pair copper cable, cut and stole a portion of it. The burned cable was found and recovered some 600 metres from the crime scene. Telecom Namibia has reported the crime and a police investigation is currently underway,” he said.

According to him, Telecom Namibia has commenced the restoration process and services will progressively be restored by the end of the week on Saturday, 25 February.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this outage and we assure customers that we are doing all that we can to curb any further copper cable theft in the area. We appeal to residents in this area to be on high alert and to report any suspicious activity to Telecom Namibia 24 hour crime/fraud hotline number 0800 20 35 79, or the nearest Police Station,” he said.

In the past Telecom Namibia has offered up to N$20 000 for information to help arrest and convict those accused of vandalising and stealing communication cable or other equipment from the national network.

In a previous statement Angula said the crimes, whether taking the form of theft, vandalism or sabotage, are being committed purely for financial gain and cannot be regarded as petty crime any longer.