Gaborone – Botswana’s biggest mobile operator said on Thursday its telecoms towers were being plundered for lithium batteries, whose value has surged as the world switches to alternative energy.
“This issue is a crisis that is seriously challenging our quality of service ambitions,” Tebogo Lebotse-Sebego, a spokeswoman for telecoms operator Mascom Wireless, told AFP.
Thefts of batteries and fuel have cost the company more than three million pula ($232 000) so far this year, she said.
Demand for rechargeable batteries is soaring worldwide as countries look for solutions to store and transport greener energy.
There has been a surge in the theft of lithium batteries in Botswana as demand for alternative power sources for home and industrial use increases across southern Africa. | @CdeLENIN https://t.co/V4KqteSOrL
— News24 (@News24) November 17, 2022
On Tuesday, the Botswanan police said they had arrested four men from Zimbabwe who were found in possession of 40 lithium ion batteries worth more than $77,000.
“The items are suspected to have been stolen from different telecommunications towers belonging to Mascom,” the police said in a statement.
A day earlier two other people were held while en route to Zimbabwe with 12 batteries they “could not account for,” they added.
Lebotse-Sebego said the firm planned to ask communities living near its towers to assist with policing.
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Source: AFP
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