Thieves target copper cables at Phakalanes dark city

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Friday April 13, 2012 00:00

Mmegi has also learnt that due to the standoff between Phakalane Estates on one side and Botswana Power Corporation and Water Utilities Corporation one the other, some of the home buyers have instructed their banks to withhold making payments to BHC pending connection of utilities.

Thieves are now taking advantage of the standoff that goes back to December last year when the houses were completed. The utilities want Phakalane Estates to fork out P55 million for the upgrading of a sewerage pump and a power substation for the whole of Phakalane.

This week, Broadhurst Police Station, under which Phakalane falls, told Mmegi the 'dark town' had become a top problem area since December when copper cables there began to attract thieves.

Eleven cases of copper cable vandalism and theft have been recorded since the beginning of this year, five of them in January, four in February and two in March.

Superintendent Ronald Molapisi says his office is inundated with reports of copper cables and pipe theft at the BHC houses.

'We continue to receive high numbers of copper cable theft from that site, but we are yet to catch a culprit,' Molapisi says. 'My officers tell me they registered two more cases recently where the vandalism involving copper cables amounted to P38,000.'

Phakalane Estates reports recently spending P87,000 to hire a private security company to guard the houses in order to minimise the vandalism. Mmegi investigations have found that the thieves target copper cables connected to geysers, power cables and copper pipes.

This week, a worried 27-year old Motswana man who owns a mansion in Phakalane has told Mmegi how thieves are stealing the copper cables at his house under the cover of darkness.

But it has emerged that BHC could also be a big loser in the stand-off between Phakalane and the utilities because some buyers have advised their banks not to pay it until the houses have been connected. Some of the buyers who spoke to Mmegi on condition of anonymity said they had found themselves paying mortgages for inhabitable houses. Because technically BHC have not handed over some of the houses pending power and water connections, the housing agency is facing further losses because it will have to fix all damages before handing over the houses. Contacted recently, BHC spokesman Mookodi Seisa said the buyers had registered their concerns about the unavailability of water and power in the houses. Seisa said BHC did not know how long the problem between the stakeholders would last but said they were in touch with stakeholders to resolve the matter.

The 600 BHC houses recently attracted P600 million in loans from various banks. They were built in March 2011 and completed in December of the same while some were completed in March this year.