Copper cable theft syndicates are wreaking havoc on South Africa’s infrastructure, costing the economy an estimated R7-billion annually in direct losses alone and plunging households, businesses and factories into darkness through widespread cable theft power outages, according to a 2025 Economic Bulletin report by the National Treasury.
With Eskom reporting 771 transformer failures linked to vandalism and illegal connections in the first nine months of 2025, up 20% from the previous year, the crisis is not about just stealing copper wire but sabotaging the nation’s energy security and economic recovery.
JSE-listed South Ocean Electric Wire Company (SOEW), an Alrode-based original equipment manufacturers (OEM cable manufacturer), is calling for an immediate government crackdown on organised crime and lax import controls, warning that rushed replacements with cheap, non-compliant cables from China are exacerbating the problem and risking further blackouts for households, businesses and industries.
“When emergency fixes are desperately needed, whatever replacements are at hand are used, these are often cheap imports that fail local SANS standards, adding the risk of ongoing outages,” says SOEW CEO Andre Smith.
“The scale of cable theft is staggering. It is believed that syndicates, sophisticated networks often involving insiders, scrap dealers and international buyers, target copper and aluminium lines across Eskom’s grid, municipalities and private networks.
“These groups, detailed in a September 2025 SAPS intelligence brief, coordinate via encrypted apps, bribe officials and use stolen vehicles for quick hits, selling looted metal to Asian buyers. And now, an increasingly disturbing trend are armed robberies directly targeting copper manufacturers or resellers, putting the lives of employees at risk.
“Manufacturing industries, reliant on uninterrupted power for machinery, report productivity drops, as per the Manufacturing Circle’s October 2025 analysis, with sectors like automotive and food processing hit hardest. Even renewables are affected with solar farm cabling targeted.
“It’s a vicious cycle,” notes Smith. “Theft prompts hasty replacements, and with local OEMs regularly losing tenders to non-cable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), importers and cable dumping is flooding the market.
“Chinese cables, comprising 70% of PV and power imports (Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, 2025), often skip certification, lacking compliance requirements such as UV resistance and cross-linked Low Smoke and Zero Halogen (LSZH) insulation which provides properties designed to meet enhanced fire safety compliance.
“Syndicates steal, grey imports are used as replacements, and the grid suffers, it’s a vicious cycle we must break,” says Smith.
He is concerned that numerous industries including mining, construction, solar and manufacturing are facing an escalating threat from the influx of substandard imported power cables, jeopardising safety, employment and the economic viability of the local cable manufacturing industry, but most importantly job losses, as the market is being flooded with cheap, non-regulated imports.
He says calls are growing for decisive action from the authorities to protect the industry, urging the South African Revenue Service (SARS), dtic and trade unions to investigate potential dumping, drawing parallels with the June 2025 anti-dumping duties on tyres from Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.
“Without intervention, the reliance on untested imports could deepen, threatening the resilience of South Africa’s industrial base and local power cable manufacturing, and associated jobs such as PVC producers, wooden drum manufacturers and steel wire suppliers.”
He calls for stakeholders to demand transparency. “Imports must adhere to local dumping regulations and material specifications to safeguard these critical industrial sectors.”
As a JSE-listed local OEM, SOEW produces SABS-compliant cables from its Alrode factory, meeting SANS 62930 for DC-rated PV systems (1500/1500V, up to 1800/1800V), with tinned copper for conductivity and 25-year 90°C durability.