- Theft rampant in Tswapong, Kgalagadi
- BTC Francistown loses P13 million worth of cables
Faced with huge losses due rampant theft of its copper cables Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) last year starting replacing its copper telecommunication cables with fibre, a move which has seen criminals move their trade to rural areas.
In an interview with BTC project Manager, Gabalemogwe Rankgate said since replacing their cables with fibre connectivity in Gaborone, Francistown and most major peri-urban areas, criminality has declined.
“Incidents of thefts have sharply dropped and connectivity is more reliable too in areas where we have fibre cables. We install fibre, we recover the copper cables. However, theft of copper cables has escalated in villages, outskirts and remote areas,” highlighted Rankgate.
“Once the criminals realised there was no more copper in our cities, they starting targeting villages. We are seeing a lot of our copper cables being stolen in Tswapong, Kgalagadi and the North East district. This is where we are having a bit of a challenge.” The stolen cables are rarely recovered when culprits are apprehended by the law enforcements.
Botswana Telecommunications Corporation’s project manager said in areas they are replacing copper cables with fibre, the recovered copper is sold.
BTC intends to conclude the replacement of copper cables with fibre by the end of next year. Rankagate said mining towns such as Orapa and Jwaneng are fully fibre connected.
Meanwhile, in Francistown the City Council streetlights have not been spared. Huge chunks of copper cables have been stolen in Monarch and Gerald Estates.
On the sidelines of the Francistown full council session this week, Deputy Mayor Lesego Kwambala said cables worth millions had been stolen in these two residential areas.
“Due to the theft of these cables, Council has not been able to achieve 90 percent illumination of the city. In Monarch cables worth P5 million were stolen. While in Gerald Estates cables valued at P8 million were also stolen. As council were are still struggling to source the amount of money to replace them,” said Kwambala.
Since the city embraced green energy, the council has been replacing most of its street lights with solar powered ones, which was also a measure to cut down the electricity bills with Botswana Power Corporation (BPC). The Francistown City Council has since installed 791 solar streetlights in Francistown West and Francistown South.
