Telecom reported last week that its systems to the east of Okahandja went down due to copper theft after four pairs of wire spanning a distance of seven poles were stolen. The areas affected were Midgard, Ovitoto, Otjisazu and surrounding farms. The theft left about 50 customers without telephone lines.

The theft of copper wire has become a serious operational and financial concern for Telecom. In less than a month, the telecommunications utility reported seven incidents of disrupted communications following the removal of various distances of copper wire by unscrupulous thieves.
Uis residents are still without phone service after the theft of copper wire from the Telecom Namibia network on 26 March 2008. Thieves stole about 13 kilometres of copper telephone wire in the Uis area in two separate incidences.
During the same period, criminals took 20 kilometres of copper wire from the Telecom network at Kransberg.
In an unrelated incident, thieves literally cut down 32 telephone poles and carted away 1.5 kilometres of copper wire from the trunk route between Neudamm and the Hosea Kutako International Airport.
Over the weekend, two separate counts of copper wire theft were reported in the Seeis and Ombotuzu areas respectively.
Between Seeis and the Hosea Kutako International Airport, thieves looted 2.7 km of copper wire. This brings the total to 4.2 kilometre of copper of wire stolen from the route in almost a week’s time.
A kilometre of copper wire was stolen in the Ombotuzu area, some 20 km from Okahandja, on the Otjiwarongo/Okahandja trunk route. At least 36 customers connected to two SOR-18 lines are affected.