State-owned Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) will need at least R3-billion to upgrade its security infrastructure across all of its corridors, with about 80% of this to be funded through external means, TFR North Corridor managing executive Thozama Mokoena revealed to Engineering News & Mining Weekly on February 16.

She explained that TFR simply did not have the funds internally to roll out the desired and much-needed security upgrades, which would be rolled out in phases across strategic corridors.

“With regard to security, we have to acknowledge we're overwhelmed,” she stressed.

Mokoena said TFR had experienced an unprecedented 177% increase in criminal incidences and security breaches along its network nationwide over the past five years.

At its peak, more than 120 000 m of copper cable was stolen in November 2020 alone. These incidents contributed to a 343% loss in tonnage railed over the same five years.

Vandalised or stolen signalling equipment, overhead traction equipment, substations and telecommunications were all recorded in this time.

Among the technologies that Mokoena proposed to roll out nationally were distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) systems. Unlike traditional sensors that rely on discrete sensors measuring at predetermined points, distributed sensing uses optical fibre as a sensing element, which allows acoustic signals to be detected over large distances.

She explained that DAS would pick up any unauthorised intrusion on the network.

She also mentioned the possible implementation of roving eye technology she referred to as “Cat Eyes”, which provided a mobile 360° surveillance capability along the rail lines.

Increased closed circuit television monitoring infrastructure and intrusion detection technology were also proposed.

Moreover, a strategy of “target hardening” was proposed to prevent access to equipment. Target hardening involves having steel boxes and cages, for example, being placed over key infrastructure to prevent access by unauthorised persons.

Mokoena said she believed the rampant rise in infrastructure theft was owing to the increase in the unemployment levels since the outbreak of the pandemic, giving rise to desperation among large parts of the population.

“It caught us off guard a little bit. We really did not expect that things would turn out like this,” she said.

She called for tighter regulation and controls on the sale of copper and steel in South Africa to help curb the theft of copper cables and other infrastructure because much of what is stolen gets melted down and exported.

“With tighter controls, we have an opportunity to close that down. We have already closed down a number of illegal scrap yards and illegal exporting operations,” she said.

Mokoena said TFR had been partnering with the South African Police Service, the Hawks, affected communities, customers and the Richards Bay Coal Terminal to address the issue of security along the compromised network.

Some customers have had to supply their own security in the interim in the form of on-the-ground security guards and vehicles, as well as aerial support in the form of surveillance drones.

She said TFR had about four drones monitoring the coal lines but was too “cash-strapped” to deploy more. The private sector, therefore, contributed an additional eight drones and 60 vehicles to supplement Transnet’s capacity.

Mokoena said that, since partnering with customers to beef up security measures, there has been some reduction in security incidents, although much more was still required.

“We really need to roll out a more technological solution as a more sustainable solution to the security issue,” she said, noting that physical guarding was only partly effective because criminals would merely move to other less-guarded areas.

She said prevention would be critical going forward.

“This technology unfortunately costs a lot, so we are also looking to partner with our customers in this respect. We believe that if we can raise the funds, this technology can be rolled out in four to six months,” Mokoena said.