
KWEKWE – One of the country’s major telecommunications network providers NetOne has bemoaned loss of valuable infrastructure and business opportunities to vandalism and theft.
NetOne Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Raphael Mushanawana told The Mirror in a sideline interview that the company incurred losses due to vandalism and theft in 2024.
Mushanawana was at the NetOne 2025 strategic workshop held at Sanja Conference Center in Masasa Park, Kwekwe last week.
He said the act of vandalizing telecommunications infrastructure is retrogressive and disadvantages the community and service provider.
“We have challenges whereby the community in some cases vandalise the telecommunications infrastructure that is an act which is retrogressive and which makes economic development very slow. We have a number of infrastructure that was vandalized and we also need to include opportunities where some businesses were affected.
“The total cost runs into hundreds of thousands of United States Dollars as putting up one base station requires plus or minus US$100 000 so if you have people cutting tower metals, generators being stolen and in one of the serious matters we had the truck service vehicle which was being used by engineers being stolen with equipment that was earmarked for deployment. These acts are not good for the development of Zimbabwe. We also have commercial power challenges.
“We implore our network users to desist from vandalizing the network infrastructure and guard it jealously once it is put in place because it is for their own good as it provides effective communication and development for their community,” he said.