South Africa’s Johannesburg to Pretoria high-speed railway service, the Gautrain, has suffered delays this morning as a result of theft of its copper signalling cable.

According to Gautrain officials, more than 370 metres of signalling cables were stolen overnight between Midrand and Samrand, which resulted in the disruptions of certain train routes in the Gauteng area.

The signalling cable helps provide permission for a train to travel on particular sections of the track, explained rail service officials.

Bombela Concession Company executive Errol Braithwaite confirmed to ITWeb Africa that signalling cable was stolen in the early hours of this morning, after criminals smashed a concrete palisade fence to gain access to the cables.

Trains on the service can travel up to 160 km/h but commuters between two nearby stations have had to put up with travelling at much slower speeds this morning.

“Last night cable was stolen again. Trains between Centurion and Midrand will run at 30km/h influencing the timetable,” read a tweet from Gautrain.

Braithwaite explains why the theft of the cable resulted in a delayed service:

“Essentially what happened is that we lost the signal of that cable and what that meant was we had to implement manual permission for that section of the track,” he said.

Braithwaite added, “We continue to be targets it’s just that often we are able to prevent attempts at robbery but unfortunately last night they managed to make some damage.”

While organisations such as the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) have called on President Jacob Zuma to prioritise "the rising levels of cable theft", South African orgnanisations continue to be targets and victims of cable theft.

Last month about 300 people were injured when two trains in Atteridgeville in Pretoria crashed into each other. At the time, Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) said the accident was caused by cable theft.

Furthermore, last week telecommunications provider Telkom reported that its services in the Danville, Elandspoort, and Phillip Nel Park suburbs in Pretoria were disrupted as a result of cable theft.

But according to the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (Sacci) Copper Theft Barometer, cable theft numbers have decreased to a level of R11.1 million in January 2013 from R12.4 million in December 2012.

Sacci reported that this was the lowest level of the Barometer since April 2009 and a strong indication that the downward momentum seen in 2012 should continue into 2013.