Telkom expects to have corporate services in Craighall, Hyde Park and Dunkeld restored by this afternoon, with the balance completed by 3pm tomorrow, following another huge cable theft.
Technicians are working around the clock to restore services in the busy commercial areas, after a gang of thieves made off with 117m of cable yesterday evening.
The service breakdown - between Bompas Avenue, the William Nicol highway and Jan Smuts Avenue - affects around 1 800 Telkom business and residential customers, notably those with the prefixes 880, 882, 788, 761, 763, 760 and 766.
"The delay in restoration is due to routing of the cable that is situated on the northern sidewalk of Jan Smuts Avenue, which also accommodates other services, including gas reticulation," says Telkom media specialist, Ravin Maharaj.
"While Telkom`s priority is to restore the services, efforts are also under way to trace the wrongdoers."
He says the thieves cut through four underground cables on Jan Smuts Avenue sometime yesterday evening, in what is the third incident in a month in the Rosebank and Dunkeld node.
"Telkom has been forced to take drastic steps to secure its network against organised cable and solar panel theft syndicates, including `alarming` cable routes in theft-prone areas," says Maharaj.
"The company has also hired private security companies on contract to provide round-the-clock armed reaction and patrols. Following this latest incident, security has once again been stepped up."
He says the public can report activities which arouse their suspicions to the Telkom number 0860 124 000 or the police. As an incentive, Telkom rewards people who provide information that leads to a successful conviction and/or recovery of stolen Telkom assets.
"In the past, when cable thieves have been caught, the average sentence handed down by the courts has been in the region of two to three years in prison, although in certain exceptional circumstances, sentences of up to seven years have been passed.
"Of course, each case is different and depends on the circumstances and the impact that the theft has upon customers."
Related stories:
Sapa downed by cable theft
Cable theft disrupts City Deep suburbs
Share
