Africa-Press – Botswana. Traditional leaders have been urged to mobilise members of the community to join forces with telecommunication service providers to guard against the theft and vandalism of telecommunication infrastructure.
The call was made by the Mascom engineer in Maun, Mr Peter Mogwadi during a kgotla meeting.
He said all telecommunication operators were concerned about the increasing acts of theft and vandalism of equipment as it was impacting negatively on the quality of telecommunication services across the country.
He indicated that the act was rife in the Southern, North East and Central parts of the country, noting that perpetrators targeted batteries and solar panels to sell them to some members of the community.
He said in Maun the perpetrators stole the diesel for generators used during power cuts and solar panels used in areas where there was no electricity.
“It seems the perpetrators also have some connections beyond borders as some equipment were traced outside the country. Public funds which could be used on other development projects are wasted as authorities have to investigate the incidents while operators have to replace the stolen equipment,” he added.
Mr Mogwadi further noted that in 2021, the company lost over P2m while last year it lost over P3m.
He, therefore, appealed to traditional leaders to help the operators deal with the menace of vandalism and theft, saying BPC had invested hugely in improving the quality of its services, in vain as the acts result in poor network connectivity.
Nowadays, he said even health facilities were using technology to improve some of their services, but vandalism results in provision of poor services.
“This is worrisome and it requires all stakeholders to come on board to find a solution.
I am appealing to the general public to stop buying stolen equipment, but instead play a role of citizen vigilantes to curb the alarming situation,” he added.
Mr Mogwadi said efforts had been made by some operators to engage security officers at their facilities, but stopped because they were exacerbating the situation by conniving with the perpetrators.
Currently, he said the company had put up some mechanisms to monitor and track the stolen equipment, but it was unfortunate as there was a stable market.
In response, some dikgosi urged telecommunication companies to work closely with them, saying they should visit and address meetings in their respective dikgotla so that the community could take information from the horse’s mouth.
Kgosi Tapoloso Mosika advised the operators to engage traditional leaders and also create partnerships by giving back to the communities, adding that by so doing, the public would take the lead to end vandalism and theft.
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