MTN South Africa has accelerated its drive to ensure a resilient network as many of its towers are, in some cases, completely stripped by vandals, with the company spending over R1.5-billion this year.

Teams are working around the clock to mitigate increased theft and vandalism at MTN South Africa’s towers.

During a media visit to one of the recently vandalised sites and another recently repaired site in Soweto, MTN South Africa chief technology and information officer Michele Gamberini pointed to the excessive damage that follows the theft of batteries.

“Vandalism is endemic at the moment,” he said.

While theft and vandalism are experienced across all provinces, the Eastern Cape is the most affected at the moment, with data revealing that over 390 unique sites have been vandalised since January 2022, with criminals often returning to the same sites over five times after each repair.

Overall, more than 1 000 vandalism incidents have been recorded over the past year in the Eastern Cape, with cable, battery, equipment and air conditioner theft all on the rise, said Gamberini.

These trends are persisting across all regions since the beginning of this year.

Often, once the batteries have been stolen, vandals will strip the site of anything they believe could potentially be of value, including, for example, the components of on-site antennas.

Other items damaged and stolen are doors, containers, fences, security systems and locks.

“Sometimes we have to rebuild the entire site,” Gamberini explained, noting that diesel, copper, battery and generator theft leads to extended periods of downtime as recovery teams work to repair the damage and bring in replacement batteries.

“The vandalism of base stations has shifted from opportunistic criminality, from petty thieves breaking into the stations and sites to get what copper or metals they can get, to a more organised form of criminality being run by syndicates,” MTN South Africa CEO Charles Molapisi added in a statement released after the media visit.

“They will, at times, disguise themselves as third-party contractors so as not to be confronted by local communities and take that opportunity to specifically steal batteries.”

He pointed out that, if a site is not secured soon enough after it has been hit by a syndicate, the opportunistic criminality will then also occur.

This is an increasing trend occurring as the country persistently experiences higher levels of loadshedding, with statistics showing that bouts of loadshedding have a direct correlation with the spike in vandalism and battery or generator theft at network sites.

“For instance, during the period of Stage 6 loadshedding last year, there was a major escalation of attacks and tower companies recorded a 250% increase in the loss of generators,” Molapisi said.

It is not only MTN that is suffering the consequences, with the challenge affecting all mobile operators and, with the sharing of sites by multiple operators, damage to sites can impact on many thousands of customers across the various networks.

Noting the critical need to scale up the protection of sites, Gamberini said that MTN South Africa is “hardening” the sites through a three-phase resilience plan, in conjunction with MTN’s tower sites partner, IHS, which involves the deployment of concrete blocks to secure the batteries, concrete bunkers and high-security cabinets.

MTN has also started replacing its DC copper cables with aluminium cables in transparent casings on masts at many sites, while a TX Ring resilience programme to protect sites across all provinces is on track and showing good results.

Alongside these initiatives is close collaboration with the police and heightened security at sites, which is leading to more arrests.

Gamberini told Engineering News & Mining Weekly that the company is also reviewing hybrid options for its sites, with proof of concepts under way at two sites that will include new-generation vertical wind turbines on the towers to provide additional power.

The group has also activated its first site which is fed by hybrid batteries and solar.

“At MTN, we are doing all we can to contribute meaningfully to helping alleviate the adverse impact of this crisis on the nation, its people and the economy. “This includes further progressing the roll-out of our network availability plan and aiming to have all current sites upgraded by the end of May in this phase of the programme,” Molapisi added.

To date, the network availability plan has resulted in the upgrade of 3 253 sites by the end of February 2023, with the May completion target likely to enable significant improvement to network availability in the second half of the year.

“We are working to reinforce the strength of our network around the country to withstand the pressure and ongoing demand from our valued customers. Increasingly, South Africans are turning to the digital economy for work, business, education and entertainment, so the need for seamless connectivity has never been more important,” he continued.

The theft and vandalism, he said, are negatively impacting on the connectivity of people, the smooth running of small businesses, the effective delivery of digital government services and the safety of individuals during loadshedding.

“This is not just an MTN or mobile operator problem we are working to solve; this is an SA Inc problem that we need to solve, together,” Molapisi said, adding that the company welcomed broader efforts to end criminality, including government’s six-month ban on scrap metal exports announced in November last year.