Erongo Red spends over half a million every month to restore electricity due to copper theft.

The Erongo Red chief executive officer said power provision is interrupted on a weekly basis when criminals strike out.

Tino !Hanabeb indicated that by extension, water supply is affected because some infrastructure depends on electricity to pump water.

"It's really derailing and sabotaging the supply of water to our towns, and it's also sabotaging the supply of water also to the mines, and therefore we are urging the public to report such criminal activities, as it's not in the best interest of the country, and also the resources that we are using to repair and restore these lines could have been used elsewhere. We are forced on a weekly and monthly basis to spend half a million just to restore electricity to the various towns due to copper theft."

The CEO said the coastal towns of Henties Bay, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay are prone to copper theft, and scrapyards are pushing the demand for copper.

"We need to close down these markets, and that's the scrap yards that are buying this copper, and they are also smelting some of this copper, and if they steal it here, they probably take it to the other areas and other regions overnight, and that's the challenge we have, but the scrap dealers – we are doing inspections to be able to see together with the police at the various scrap dealers where they are getting their material from. We are achieving relative success, but it's not to our satisfaction." 

The entity is running campaigns and has partnered up with the police to curb copper theft.

"These activities take place at night, and therefore it's a massive challenge that we are facing, but nonetheless we are relentlessly pursuing these criminals together with the Namibian police, and we believe that very soon we will be able to eliminate this copper theft." 

Any suspicious activities can be reported by calling 96 000 or 0811 411 2373.