Business / Companies
Govt should control copper trade - NRZ
13 Aug 2014 at 07:13hrs | Views
The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) says government should centralise and control the trade of copper and related products in order to stifle the market for vandalised equipment from the state run railway company.
"In our view, the only solution would be if the trade of copper would be controlled much the same way as the trade of gold.
"Because for as long as anyone with a licence can buy copper, and someone can steal and sell then it is very difficult to control vandalism," acting general manager Lewis Mukwada said at Parliament recently.
The call by NRZ has been necessitated by a surge in incidences theft of the company's electric copper cables for resale on the ready local market or in South Africa, which has destabilised the NRZ since 2006.
Faced with a high rate of equipment theft, Mukwanda said NRZ had hired and deployed private security companies and distributed guards at every 30km gap along Harare and Gweru to monitor, and then we also had patrol teams.
Part of the agreement between the security companies and NRZ was to share the loss in the cases of theft.
Transport and Infrastructural Development permanent secretary Munesu Munodawafa said recently, vandalism was at the core of the dilapidation of the NRZ's infrastructure and had smothered the organisation's capacity to meet customer demand.
"What is needed is that the penalties that go with vandalism of this equipment need to be commensurate with the damage that is caused.
"Yes the law now gives quite a deterrent penalty of up to 25 years for stealing copper cables, but the experience on the ground was that it depends with the charge that is given to the person who steals," he said.
Munodawafa said when someone has stolen copper cables, it's the police who lays the charge and the NRZ usually find out that it will be a simple case of theft.
"In other words, junior officers will quote the section that does not lead to the 25 years penalty but some simply say this person stole copper cables and they are treated like a common thief.
"So the sentence will be extremely non deterrent, and it would not help," he said.
The NRZ is currently replacing copper cables with fibre optic which have less to zero financial significance outside telecommunications in order to curb vandalism of its equipment.
"In our view, the only solution would be if the trade of copper would be controlled much the same way as the trade of gold.
"Because for as long as anyone with a licence can buy copper, and someone can steal and sell then it is very difficult to control vandalism," acting general manager Lewis Mukwada said at Parliament recently.
The call by NRZ has been necessitated by a surge in incidences theft of the company's electric copper cables for resale on the ready local market or in South Africa, which has destabilised the NRZ since 2006.
Faced with a high rate of equipment theft, Mukwanda said NRZ had hired and deployed private security companies and distributed guards at every 30km gap along Harare and Gweru to monitor, and then we also had patrol teams.
Part of the agreement between the security companies and NRZ was to share the loss in the cases of theft.
Transport and Infrastructural Development permanent secretary Munesu Munodawafa said recently, vandalism was at the core of the dilapidation of the NRZ's infrastructure and had smothered the organisation's capacity to meet customer demand.
"What is needed is that the penalties that go with vandalism of this equipment need to be commensurate with the damage that is caused.
"Yes the law now gives quite a deterrent penalty of up to 25 years for stealing copper cables, but the experience on the ground was that it depends with the charge that is given to the person who steals," he said.
Munodawafa said when someone has stolen copper cables, it's the police who lays the charge and the NRZ usually find out that it will be a simple case of theft.
"In other words, junior officers will quote the section that does not lead to the 25 years penalty but some simply say this person stole copper cables and they are treated like a common thief.
"So the sentence will be extremely non deterrent, and it would not help," he said.
The NRZ is currently replacing copper cables with fibre optic which have less to zero financial significance outside telecommunications in order to curb vandalism of its equipment.
Source - The Zim Mail
