Speaker 1:

All right, so they must be close to the exchange.

narrator:

Last year alone, thieves stole 36 million grammes worth of copper cable from Talcum. To stop the theft, Talcum set up a crack investigative unit.

Speaker 3:

We took our resident experts in cable theft and said to them you go away and you do whatever you have to, to stop that cable theft.

narrator:

This is Mike Compruke and Yohan Fanderberk, both members of the new unit. Kwa Zulu Natal used to have the worst problem, but largely due to the effort of this team, the situation is beginning to improve. We spent 24 hours with them.

It's Wednesday night in Amanzontoti on the south coast of Kwa Zulu Natal. Talcum has organised a special operation in the area. Working closely with the private security firm, the team responds to alarms triggered when the cable is cut. Sometimes these alarms merely mean that someone is tapped into a line legally to make calls around the world.

Speaker 1:

There's a cable alarm, but there's not a cable fit in. What we have here is that people were trying to steal lines to run a skim where they were trying to make international calls- illegal calls on peoples lines.

narrator:

This time it was a phone tap affecting only one client. More often than not, an alarm means the line has been cut, which could mean an entire area without phones. The team operates irregular hours. One of the major reasons for their success.

Speaker 1:

It's a good night and that's when the crime is committed. That's why we gotta be there.

This might be another alarm. Yes. Lima 149 Charlie. [inaudible] alright we dispatched another guy. Thank you.

Yeah come down, come down I'm here [inaudible]

narrator:

Following tracks through the sugar cane in pitch darkness and rain is difficult and dangerous. Most thieves are armed all to often the team is shot at.

Speaker 1:

Seems like a vehicle was used to pick up. You see the fresh tyre tracks

You see the drag mark, you see the dentures here, look at this and you see the tyre tracks. Can you see that?

Awe he went this way, he's coming down this way.

narrator:

Our team follows the security guard deep into the bush. Its pitch black and the cell phone signal is bad making it almost impossible to contact the rest of the team waiting at the vehicles. After a long search, the security guard manages to find the cable and to make contact.

johann:

There is over 100 metres here.[inaudible] Yes sir, I'm out in the bushes, I followed the tracks and I made a discovery. Do you see our vehicles parked in the road sir? Hello? It cut off again. You see the motis aperende, you can see the cut, its very jagged so these are cheap crooks.

narrator:

This thief has cut 500 metres of wire. If he sells it to a scrap yard, he'll make 900 grand. It will cost Talcum ten times that amount to repair the damage. Part of Mike and Johann's job is to try to recover the cable and to catch the thieves. An even bigger challenge for them are the scrap metal dealers, some of whom provide a ready market for the stolen property. On our way to one of these dealers the next morning, we passed the crime scene, Talcum workers are already repairing the damage. Talcum sell all it's scrap to only one nationally recognised dealer. All other Talcum cable that is bought or sold is illegal.

Johann has been tipped off by a scrap metal dealer. He's expecting a customer to arrive with some stolen cable. Armed with a hidden camera, we're ready and waiting. When he arrives we go in. This is the suspect Ronnie Skip, he is visibly nervous. When he realises he's been caught he decides to cooperate

Ronnie Skip:

[inaudible]

narrator:

He's been found with 14 kilogrammes of burnt wire. Most wire that is sold at scrap yards like is burnt to remove the incriminating Talcum markings. Despite this, Johann and Mike can still identify.

Just when we are about to leave to follow up with the information, another man comes to sell scrap. Mike decides to check his bag, inside is more Talcum property.

Speaker 6:

No I don't like these cameras

narrator:

Much like copper wire, it's also illegal to sell Talcum's cable joints. The new man is also detained along with the first suspect. Ronnie takes us to this place a few blocks away, he claims they are the ones who gave him the cable.

Speaker 7:

[inaudible]

narrator:

The owners of this company are angry, they say that the cable was just stored there and that Ronnie knows exactly who brought it there.

Speaker 7:

You don't know what you did, you come to a mans business, a mans business and implicate people. Your a fucking cunt you know that. Your friend brought it, I told him I don't want it, take it away.

Can I tell you something [inaudible] don't incriminate an honest mans business. Do you understand that? Take this man exactly where he needs to go.

narrator:

Exactly where we want to go turns out to be a suburb called Austerfall in the south of Durban. There we find two men Talab and Danny, while Ronnie sits in the car, Johann confronts them.

Speaker 8:

We did not know what in the place. We simply did not know, we only opened it and assumed it was copper.[inaudible] so we burn and sell it.

Speaker 8:

Right

johann:

Who burned it?

Speaker 9:

I burned it

johann:

You burned it? where did you burn it?

Speaker 9:

Over there near the dumpster, that's where most people burn the copper

johann:

Where did you get the cable from?

Speaker 9:

The man sold it and gave it to me. And I gave it to him so there.

johann:

Are you telling me now that you were willing? To be the last link in the chain.

Speaker 9:

[inaudible]

narrator:

In fact they do know he said, it Ogle. Nicky Ogle and it turns out he works for Talcum. Mike makes a few calls and we manage to trace them tho the Talcum depot in Molbane. Before going in search of Nicky, we inspect a sit where a cable was burned to see if we can find more evidence. The are is run down and it's clearly often used for illegal purposes. Many people turn out to watch.

After this it's off to find Ricky. First stop is his house, but it turns out he's at work. Finally 3 hours later we meet him. This is Nicky, the Talcum employee. Johann puts the allegations to him. At first he denies it all, then Derek, the man who identified him is brought in. Derek's statement is vague.

Face to face with Nicky, Derek begins to back track on his original statement.

derek:

You are trying to confuse me now, because I'm busy, I'm not accusing this man of theft [inaudible]

narrator:

Nicky is sent out of the room

derek:

[inaudible]

narrator:

Derek goes off on a tangent trying to confuse Johann.

derek:

[inaudible]

johann:

Tell us the story now from the beginning. Where did you get the copper?

derek:

Somebody gave me.

narrator:

Finally Nicky is brought back into the room.

derek:

[inaudible]

johann:

Where did you get the cable? Where is the cable from?

derek:

Nicky

narrator:

Johann has had enough, it's late in the afternoon he thinks its better to let the cops decide who is telling the truth and who isn't. All three are taken to the Mont Claire police station. Ronnie, Derek and Nicky are all charged with theft or alternatively Section 36, possession of suspected stolen property. But this isn't the end of the day for Johann an Mike as another call way up on the North coast near Zimbali. Another suspect has been apprehended.

This time it's fibre optic cable that's been cut. The suspect denies any involvement, he claims he was just walking on the beach looking for crabs but the two Talcum employees who arrested him tell a different story. It is rare for thieves to target fibre optic cable. Mostly it's cut by mistake when the thief is trying to remove the copper cable next to it

Speaker 1:

As you can see, they cut through the ground at about half past 1 this afternoon. Guys busy trying to recover this cable. In the process they damaged the optic cable.

narrator:

It costs telecom more than 44 thousand rand to repair the single plate. In the last 24 hours we've witnessed 5 suspects being booked and 500 metres of cable recovered. But this is only a drop in the ocean.

Speaker 1:

5 men are caught red handed but 4200 of stolen Telecom cable goes unrecovered.

narrator:

The eastern houtang. To get a sense of who these copper thieves are, we mange to track down one of them. Lets call him Jacob, he lives in a township on the east end with a large family of 18, all of them are unemployed. Jacob has bee stealing copper from Telecom since 1988.

Jacob:

To me it was non-violent crime. can say to them even if it's a crime I can say things to them because my family has grown up.

Speaker 12:

We have a situation where the cable feeding the hospital goes down, now all of a sudden no one can get into that hospital to get emergency service. No one can dial out from that hospital to get other facilities organised for their patients. We have situations where a police station is offline. Obviously not one can get a hold those emergency services once again.

Jacob:

It never occurred because there is no worries about me.

Speaker 12:

The guys actually stealing our copper is just not right. He just has a need that says my next plate of food.

Jacob:

If I'm having to feed 5 kids you offer copper I can feed them for about 2 months. And after 2 months I must make another plan to go there, to get the copper is simple, its just to climb up the pole an take the wire out, then another wire out the screw another wire. If you are careful you can unscrew all the poles. You take a bag, and in that bag you roll it first and then put it inside. You cut it open, you take the wire because that has the number from Telecom. You take the numbers out. When you take it out, there's an inside of it is like copper. Then you will take that

narrator:

After spending hours cutting this wire, Jacob burns it to remove the tell tale plastic coating.

Jacob:

Then I will go straight to where I am selling it, it's near my location. And I see that things are getting crazy. They won't ask you many question, they just put it on the scale and they give you the paper for many Kg's and you go and fetch your money.

narrator:

Jacob has agreed to let us accompany him when he goes to sell this copper to a scrap yard called Benoni Scrap Man. We hook our journalist up with they spy cam. Posing as a friend of Jacob, he asks if they will get 1000 rand for the cable.

Jacob:

[inaudible]

narrator:

He's told he won't because its Telecom cable. Clearly the dealer knows he buying stolen property. Then the manager comes and tells our journalist not to smoke. He sees the bag.

Then he goes inside to check with the Maloongu whether they can buy the goods.

Finally the big boss comes. He takes a good look at Jacob and our journalist and at the contents of the bag. This is Mr. Deploy, the owner of the yard.

After this the deal is done. The manager signs the receipt, we are paid 126 Rand and we leave.

The following Monday, mike accompanies us to the scrap yard to confront Mr. Deploy.

undercover:

My name is James and I came here Friday. Do you remember? I came on Friday and you bought some stuff and one of that stuff identified as Telecom cable. And

worker:

When was that? Friday?

undercover:

Yes it was Friday.

worker:

What time?

undercover:

It was about in the morning. And everything was recorded and its in tape so I just want to double check with you that if you can maybe...

worker:

You can come back around 4 to talk to the boss.

undercover:

But the truth is on camera saying that.[inaudible]

worker:

[inaudible]

undercover:

But the thing is I came here. You wrote this receipt for me and I was paid here.

narrator:

They look through the receipt book. Finally we look ourselves and find the correct receipt. We've used the name David.

undercover:

Here's the right receipt. Heres David. Is this the receipt?

worker:

[inaudible]

undercover:

No don't deny it, this is your signature. This is Deploy.

worker:

After awhile the boss, Mr.deploy arrives.

Mr.Deploy:

What's the problem?

undercover:

Hi, how are you, my name is James I'm from[inaudible], on Friday I was here. I brought some stuff here. You had seen the stuff and you did identify it as Telecom wire.

Mr.Deploy:

You don't

undercover:

The truth is ...

Mr.Deploy:

You assume it was maybe, but you can't identify it. If its burnt[inaudible].

undercover:

But I mean on camera they mention that its Telecom.

Mr.Deploy:

No, no now what do you want me to say? I wasn't here, I don't know what its about. Your  putting me into a corner now.

narrator:

Deploy is right, its very difficult to identify precisely where copper comes from once it's been burned. This is an excuse that many dealers use.

Speaker 12:

We got virtually catch the guy red handed purchasing our copper when we know its our copper. We gotta catch them red handed at the time.

narrator:

Once our cable had been bought by Benoni Scrap it's more than likely that it was sold to a bigger scrap metal company. In South Africa, the entire industry is controlled by 5 or 6 large companies. Their the ones that process the scrap into pure copper. Because of the way the industry is structured, all scrap copper ends up and one of these companies.

Speaker 12:

The copper that's stolen from our network ends up in huge organisations. They never get their hand dirty or they never get their hand anywhere near the actual action of stealing the copper from the ground.

narrator:

Like all other scrap copper, our stolen cable must have ended up at one of these huge organisations. We wanted to know which one.

worker:

[inaudible]

narrator:

Reclamation group is one these large companies. They deal in all sorts of recyclable material. We tried to ask them about our stolen cable. At first they agreed, then they changed their mind and they refused to give us an interview. In a faxed reply, they stated that they did not buy stolen cable from Benoni Scrap Metal. They also said that their company does not buy any metal that they suspect is stolen.

Speaker 12:

A person where the copper ends up...

Because of the structured system the server copper goes through will very seldom be arrested. But the poor guy whose stealing it out of the ground in the morning or whenever during the day, he's the guy that gets targeted. The guy sitting in his plush office somewhere where the copper eventually ends up he never gets touched.

narrator:

Almost 70 million Rand worth of copper wire is stolen each year and finds its way onto the market. Despite this, not one of these conglomerates has ever been successfully prosecuted.

bernard magiure:

The Metal Recyclers Association are sensitive about the fact that there is this inference that we are the bad guys, and that we are supporting and industry where anything that's stolen can be sold to us.

narrator:

Bernard Maguire is head of the Metal Recyclers Association. An association of scrap metal dealers. Members of this association deal with 85% of recyclable scrap metal in South Africa. We asked Bernard what the association does to prevent its members from buying stolen cable.

bernard magiure:

We have a code of conduct. And in that code of conduct which is applicable to all our members, no member will deal in the purchase or the sale of stolen goods. And on that basis, if any of our members are caught doing that, they will be expelled.

narrator:

To date not one single company has ever been expelled from the association.

undercover:

Can you identify Telecom cable?

Speaker 17:

[inaudible]

undercover:

This guy said he can identify the telecom wire. Like you said you were not here

Mr.Deploy:

[inaudible]

undercover:

[inaudible] the employee, they can identify the telecom copper. That's what he said to me that it was the telecom copper which means that they bought the stuff that they knew was stolen.

I mean he knows from the start that you were buying the telecom wire.

Mr.Deploy:

But I'm telling you over and over and over but you are not listening to me. I'm done that's it.