By Sikhulile Dlamini
MBABANE – With loses amounting to nearly E200 million for the Eswatini Post Telecommunications (EPTC) Company, the action of copper theft demands for the immediate national action.
This was said by Khulile Dlamini who is Chief Marketing officer at EPTC during an interview with Eswatini TV’s Kusile Breakfast Show this morning (May 13, 2024). Dlamini emphasised on the effect that the copper theft did to development in the country, highlighting that it was detrimental to both operations of the company and customer service.
“The company loses a lot of money, as customers end up not wanting to pay for services that were not delivered and in that way customer relationship with the company is affected as,” Dlamini added.
In response to this crisis, Dlamini said EPTC tried to transition from copper to fiber for service delivery. He highlighted that in most parts of the country, especially urban areas, copper was scarce and fiber, which could not be easily found, was being used.
He also mentioned that the backlog of customer applications of service delivery such as Wi-Fi was also caused by the copper theft, as it took time to replace the copper and its failure to replace it due to the shortage and continuous theft.
“In the last year however, the backlog has decreased and customers will no longer have to have a longer waiting period to get the service,” Dlamini said.
As a role that society can play in mitigating this disaster, Dlamini urged citizens to be on the lookout for people who were seen at night or during the day who are not people who work at EPC.
