BUSINESS has not been running smoothly for few companies that use Telkom landlines in Bloutulp Road, Alberton North.
Business owners in the area are frustrated following the theft of their telephone lines, leading to their Telkom network being down constantly.
These businesses in particular, mostly rely on a working landline because their means of contacting customers is via phone calls.
The turnaround times for fixing the problem by Telkom is said to take up to two weeks at a time.
A manager at Drews Auto Spares told the RECORD that they have lost a lot of money due to this. She said that this problem often gets resolved after two to three weeks just for cables to be stolen again.
“This has inconvenienced us because we lose customers due to this theft. It was going to be understandable if this was a once off thing but instead, it is an ongoing thing.
“I’m not the only one affected by this. I mostly get surrounding business owners coming to ask us if we had a similar problem. We are forced to pay monthly fees yet our lines are down most of the time,” she said.
Surrounding businesses said this was also the case with them and it also cost them a fortune.
She added that the theft of these copper cables led her into considering shifting to mobile connection.
“I am now considering using cellular phones to contact customers, at least there are no cables involved there. At one incident where a cable was stolen I had to spend at least R4 000 to buy data and airtime,” she concluded.
Jacques Smith, Combined Private Investigations’ senior investigator under Telkom encourage the community to report those involved.
“Many areas are experiencing this theft of landline telephone cables. This is because those involved are primarily stealing copper wires and sell them at scrapyards for an estimated R4 per kilogram. We are struggling to get information from the public, however, in order to be able to make arrests there has to be someone that makes a statement or an oath,” said Smith.
He encouraged the community to get involved in reporting those perpetrators, more especially scrap dealers.
A Telkom representative told the RECORD that they strongly condemn these criminal activities but alternatives were provided for Telkom customers.
“These criminal activities affect our customers adversely and they could wait for a while before new cables are replaced. Although, Telkom has introduced a system of fibre optic cables which will help in curbing this theft. We believe this will help put an end to this theft because these perpetrators target copper wires. With the fibre optic cables it will be impossible for these criminal activities to continue occurring. We advise our customers to migrate to fibre optic lines. Migration is free of charge,” said the representative.
To report any crime, the public is advised to contact the Telkom crime reporting line on 0800 375 375.
