by AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – NO less than 240 people have been arrested and over 1 200 batteries recovered during a crackdown on criminals targeting MTN South Africa equipment.
The mobile network operator attributed this to the implementation of a new 360 Plan Security Model.
MTN said this to a 49-percent reduction in battery-related theft and vandalism incidents from the previous year.
Some 857 lead acid batteries recovered together with 401 lithium batteries. Added to this is the recovery of 80 network copper cables
The company said with the implementation of the 360 Plan Security Model, recorded incidents went down from 2 195 in 2019 to 1 115 in 2020.
Ernest Paul, General Manager: MTN Network Operations, said the reduction of incidents resulted in a 45 percent reduction in actual batteries losses over the year, from 13 066 to 7 150 from 2019 to 2 020 respectively.
In the fourth quarter, 153 stolen battery incidents were recorded from 292 in the prior quarter and down from as many as 472 in the first quarter of the year.
Compared to the previous year, this represented a drop by 432 battery incidents.
For November 2020, a total of 191 batteries were recovered, five vehicles impounded and a total of 19 suspects arrested and charged in accordance with the Criminal Matter Amendment (CMA) Act.
– CAJ News