Two Chinese male nationals were arrested for possession of stolen copper sheets worth R16 million during an intelligence-driven operation in Booysens by members of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD).

This comes after officers received information regarding the theft of copper sheets that were linked to a Mayden Wharf, South African Police Service (Saps) case in Durban.

The information led the officers to the location of the truck transporting the stolen copper, which was parked at a warehouse at the corner of Treu and Vlak Streets, Booysens.

Upon their arrival at the warehouse, officers searched the premises and recovered suspected stolen copper sheets in two trucks parked in the warehouse yard.

JMPD officers confirmed that the estimated value of the recovered copper sheets amounts to approximately R16 million.

Both suspects were found at the premises and were arrested for the possession of suspected stolen property and have been detained at Johannesburg Central Saps.

The Deputy Director of the Communication Resource Centre at the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), Niko Allie, noted that the widespread theft of copper cable and other forms of metal from public infrastructure has serious consequences in the real world.

“The criminal theft of electricity cables, power pylons, railway tracks, traffic lights and manhole covers has reached alarming levels,” Allie noted

“They are impacting our way of life and threaten to erode many of the gains we have made,” he said.

And reported findings from an independent research team from Genesis Analytics, which was commissioned by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.

“The economic damage of copper theft alone has been estimated at more than R45 billion annually, in 2024,” Allie noted.

“Transnet reported 1 121km of cable stolen in the 2023 financial year, a nearly eight-fold increase over five years,” he said.

Meanwhile, Eskom copper theft is estimated to cost R5-7 billion a year, plus roughly another R2 billion to replace stolen cables.

He added that these criminal acts take a severe toll on public infrastructure, the economy and our quality of life.

Allie concluded that metal theft impacts society in a multitude of ways and said that “all of us need to stop cable theft, and we need to do it now”, he emphasised.