A man in South Africa has been sentenced to 47 years in prison for stealing batteries from cell towers.

Shepherd Ushe, 39, was sentenced on April 10 by the Kimberley Regional Court.

The lengthy sentence comes at a time when South African telcos have pushed to clamp down on telecoms infrastructure theft, which often leads to outages.

Ushe was found guilty of the thefts from cell towers in the Delportshoop and Danielskuil areas between April 2018 and June 2019.

The investigation was led by the Northern Cape Provincial Organised Crime Investigation Unit.

The South African Police Service revealed that Ushe was 'positively linked to three incidents involving theft at cellphone towers.' He was subsequently traced and arrested in the Gauteng Province.

Further investigations found that Ushe, who was held in custody throughout several court appearances, was in the country illegally.

Ushe was found guilty of the theft and sentenced to 47 years: 45 years for causing damage to essential infrastructure, plus two years for contravention of Immigration Laws.

Infrastructure theft has been a big issue for telecom carriers in South Africa.

Telkom, in partnership with the South African Police Services (SAPS), revealed last year that more than 3,000 people have been arrested for such crimes, adding that the partnership has resulted in less theft at their sites.

Rival telco MTN Group paired with the Gauteng Provincial Community Police Board in March of last year to clamp down on network infrastructure theft and vandalism.

Vodacom has also increased security at its base station sites through the installation of CCTV cameras.

South African prosecutors have pushed hard to deter vandals from targeting telecoms infrastructure. Last year, five Zimbabwe nationals were sentenced to 10 years in prison for the theft of solar batteries and copper cables in the Northern Cape, South Africa.