Theft amounts to R200m a year

Informal settlements aggravate Spoornet’s security headache Leonard Neill THE ENCROACHMENT of informal settlements on property running alongside railway lines is costing Spoornet millions of rand annually through theft of infrastructure and goods. Now the parastatal’s new chief executive, Dolly Mokgatle, wants government departments and the relevant communities to lend a hand. “We appeal to the Housing Department to assist us in ensuring that people do not build inside rail reserves, and where they have already done so, assist us in relocating them,” she said at the launch of Spoornet’s crime and safety campaign last week. “We are grateful for the assistance which we are beginning to get from the police in infiltrating and busting syndicates which are feeding on our infrastructure. Nothing of ours is safe. Not even our wagons. Through joint initiatives, however, with Eskom, Telkom, Metrorail, City Power and municipalities, we have recovered stolen property and closed down scrap dealers. But more has to be done.” Mokgatle said there were currently 200 informal settlements on the Spoornet rail reserve countrywide. The rail facility has suffered theft-related loss to the value of R200million during the past year involving goods in transit, copper, tarpaulins and rail infrastructure. Locomotive and wagon parts have been stolen from various staging sites across the country, while wagons and rail track have been cut up and shipped overseas for sale. Wooden sleepers are also targeted and supplied to individuals in the furniture manufacturing industry.