South Africa’s freight and rail parastatal Transnet has said that it has managed to meet the supply of fuel demand in Gauteng amidst efforts to curb criminal incidents of fuel theft on the multi-product pipelines that have resulted in damage to the 24-inch multiproduct pipeline from Durban to Gauteng.
In a statement released over the weekend, the state-owned company (SOC) said it had worked around the clock to ensure that the damaged infrastructure was repaired and was able to deliver product.
Repair work included increasing security capabilities, and forming partnerships with law enforcement agencies, rural communities and farmers’ associations.
According to the SOC, its collaborative efforts to address damage to infrastructure and prevent a recurrence of recent criminal developments had led to a number of arrests, and the impounding of vehicles and fuel tankers.
Transnet described the pipeline from Durban to Johannesburg as a “critical piece of economic infrastructure”.
“The pipeline is classified as essential infrastructure, therefore tampering, or colluding to tamper, is a Schedule 5 offence in terms of the Criminal Matters Amendment Act, Act 18 of 2015.”
