Falling Victim to Solar Equipment Scams amidst Loadshedding

South Africans falling victim to solar equipment scams amidst load shedding, warns Sabric

Desperate South Africans trying to beat the load-shedding blues have fallen victim to solar energy scams, the SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) said on Tuesday.

We looked at the impact of the operational risk as well as the crime and security risks. The areas we focused on have been cash management and the availability of cash in the system.”

According to Sabric CEO Nischal Mewalall, the impact of load shedding on the banking industry had been an area of specific focus and planning for quite a while.“What happens with load shedding has direct implications on the way a bank or the way an entire industry manages risks.

“We have been taking steps to evaluate and identify types of scenarios that could develop as load shedding begins to pan out and identify the types of mitigation steps we could put in place so that we could respond to the impact of load shedding,” Mewalall said.

Mewalall, Institute for Security Studies Gareth Newham, Major Lunga Dweba of the Geopolitical Intelligence Advisory, and Grant Clarke of the Cash-In-Transit Association of SA (Citasa) addressed a National Press Club briefing on the impact and effects of load shedding.

Mewalall said one of the important scenarios the center had been focusing on for the past six months was the impact of stage 8 load shedding and the potential of a total grid collapse.

“The second area has been the communication between bank customers, employees and stakeholders, and law enforcement agencies.

“In terms of the grid being not available in certain areas geographically where banks are positioned, we have not seen any direct or indirect link to any crime directed towards banking infrastructure in those specific areas,” he said.

“Many people would be now going out, looking for alternative energy sources, and so individuals have taken advantage of this scenario.

“The increases seem to be spiking as a result of load shedding. Load shedding is a very worrying factor that powers on to a number of other factors that weaken our public security situation and the ability of the state to effectively respond to that situation,” he said. 

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