Organised crime syndicates targeting industrial batteries powering the country’s cellphone towers are wrecking businesses and threatening to plunge SA into a telecommunications black hole.

In the past month, thieves – who reportedly sell stolen batteries each to households running off-grid power systems – have run riot across the country’s economic hub of Gauteng, stealing hundreds of cellphone tower batteries. 

These batteries – that are worth around R28 000 each and can last up to eight years – are used to power cellphone masts. If they are stolen, there is no back-up power. The cellphone masts are independent of Eskom, so if the power grid goes down, the masts are not affected...