Transnet Freight Rail’s (TFR) north corridor has been shut down after it was hit by two major cable theft incidents.
One incident took place in Mswaneni between Vryheid and Ulundi on a tunnel bypass while the other was reported at the north corridor on Tuesday night. There was also attempted cable theft at Mkhondo, which required two hours of repair work and has now been completed.
Transnet said the theft was extensive and included five spans of catenary wire stolen, five spans of contact wire vandalised, and five spans of steelwork damaged.
“The north corridor is a key corridor for the movement of, amongst other commodities, export coal and accounts for over 40% of the volume transported by TFR,” said Transnet.
“Transnet is hard at work finding solutions to mitigate the scourge. We have put in place several measures to counteract this [including drones and tactical task teams] and are also collaborating with our customers on various initiatives.
“We continue to engage with all stakeholders and law-enforcement agencies such as the South African Police Service.”
According to TFR, about 1 500km of cable was stolen in the financial year to March 2022. The net financial impact of theft is about R4.1-billion which includes operational disruptions, security costs, remediation and lost opportunity of foreign direct earnings.
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