Telkom has resorted to deploying armed guards to hide in bushes overnight to try to stop gangs from stripping phone lines in the Western Cape.

Sources have told the Cape Argus that one of the hardest-hit areas is the Elgin Valley, where a 1km stretch of phone line had been stolen during the night on at least six occasions recently - leaving a number of farms without phone lines.

Another stretch of phone line, in Valley Road which leads off the N2 to prominent apple and wine farms, had been stolen 10 times, a source said.

Telkom has now instructed its hired security guards to sleep out on farms and on roadsides to try to ambush the gangs.

Sources said the thieves cut through cabling, rolled it up, then gave the call for bakkies or light trucks to fetch it when the coast was clear. They usually struck between 9.30pm and 3am.

Another source estimated that R2-million worth of cabling had been stolen recently in the Elgin Valley alone, and that other farming areas such as Vyeboom, Villiersdorp and Stellenbosch were also hard hit.

Telkom spokesperson Pynee Chetty confirmed yesterday that the parastatal had taken a range of steps to combat cable theft. Certain stretches of phone lines were now alarmed and others were patrolled. The company was also burying cabling in particularly vulnerable areas.

Telkom was also pushing for the government to reclassify copper cable as providing an essential service, whereby its theft would be classed as sabotage.