The recent theft of copper cables and vandalism of critical telecommunications infrastructure have resulted in repeated service disruptions and network outages affecting several parts of Namibia.
The incidents have caused significant inconvenience to businesses, institutions, and communities.
The increasing incidents continue to place financial and operational pressure on companies and affect national efforts aimed at digital transformation and reliable information and communication technology (ICT) service delivery.
From a network engineering perspective, two factors make this issue persistent:
a) Legacy infrastructure: Sections of the access network still rely on copper. Copper is easily identifiable and removable and fetches a good price at informal scrap markets.
b) Geographic exposure: Some traffic routes between suburbs or towns navigate remote, low- or no-surveillance areas. Thus, the time to detect and respond to a physical breach is often longer than the time needed to cut and remove the cable.
Industry experts note that operators on the continent are considering a range of responses, including:
- Material substitution, such as replacing copper with fibre or aluminium. This reduces theft incentives but requires heavy investment and civil works.
- Physical hardening measures, such as deeper burial and concrete ducting. This makes theft harder but increases costs and slows repairs.
- Active monitoring tools, including hybrid optical fibre-copper cables that support optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) alarms alongside distributed acoustic sensing.
This combination allows tampering to be detected, though it depends on continuous fibre paths and may trigger false alarms.
- Smarter network design, such as ring topologies and microwave backup links, can restore services faster, but backup systems face capacity limits and weather-related risks.
The rising number of incidents places heavy financial and operational pressure on service providers and threatens Namibia’s broader digital transformation agenda.
Protecting critical infrastructure, experts warn, is essential to ensuring stable ICT services and supporting the country’s economic and social development.
REGIONAL CASE STUDIES
Cable theft and vandalism of telecommunications infrastructure are not unique to Namibia.
Several African countries have implemented technical, legislative, and community-based interventions to address the growing threat to critical communication infrastructure.
Kenya and South Africa offer important regional examples for Namibia to learn from.
Kenya has adopted a combination of infrastructure modernisation, legislative enforcement, and community engagement to reduce cable theft and network disruptions in the telecommunications sector.
Key interventions include:
- Migration from copper to fibre infrastructure as fibre cables have limited scrap resale value, making them less attractive to thieves.
- Cable identification and public awareness. Operators resorted to brightly coloured cable sheathing and warnings, engraved directly on the cables, to discourage vandalism before cable cutting occurs.
Kenya strengthened enforcement through legislative and regulatory measures, introducing the Scrap Metal Act of 2015 and the Energy Act of 2019.
Kenyan telecommunication service providers involved the community by introducing community policing and public participation.
This was achieved by collaborating with local authorities, youth groups, and communities in high-risk areas to improve the reporting of vandalism incidents and to implement appropriate reward systems for information leading to arrests.
Modern technology and network management systems have been introduced to detect cable vandalism in real time, enabling rapid dispatch of law enforcement and repair teams.
Key outcomes included reduced annual vandalism, enhanced network uptime, and the protection of digital infrastructure, leading to increased revenue and investor confidence.
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa has adopted a more aggressive infrastructure protection model combining physical hardening, specialised legislation, and multi-agency security operations.
The key interventions adopted by South Africa included physical infrastructure hardening, with critical or frequently vandalised routes protected by steel-reinforced concrete ducting, deeper cable burial, and tamper-resistant installations.
In routes where fibre replacement was not practical, operators substituted copper conductors with aluminium, which has significantly lower resale value.
The South African Criminal Matters Amendment Act of 2015 has classified tampering with essential infrastructure as a serious criminal offence with mandatory minimum sentences, while the Second-Hand Goods Act strengthened the regulation of scrap metal trading.
Furthermore, law enforcement authorities and service providers have collaborated through a multi-agency operation targeting organised theft syndicates.
Infrastructure operators also shared intelligence, as thieves targeted multiple sectors, including telecommunications, rail, and power systems.
South Africa has also introduced specialised courts to fast-track infrastructure-related cases.
The combination of technical, legal, and operational interventions produced measurable reductions in infrastructure crime.
There has been a decrease in annual security incidents; thefts declined by 73%, and vandalism losses were reduced.
Despite these improvements, copper theft remains a major challenge, resulting in billions of dollars in losses.
LESSONS FOR NAMIBIA
The experiences of Kenya and South Africa demonstrate that technical measures alone are insufficient.
Infrastructure protection requires an integrated socio-technical approach combining infrastructure modernisation, real-time monitoring systems, stronger legislation, including regulation of scrap metal markets, community participation, and coordinated law enforcement.
For Namibia, these case studies provide valuable lessons for strengthening resilience within the telecommunications sector and protecting critical national digital infrastructure.
- Smita Francis is an academic, researcher, and engineering professional.
