According to the Carletonville police, a Carletonville businessman was one of four people arrested for being in possession of stolen copper cabling last week.
Members of the Carletonville K9 Dog Unit were patrolling when they noticed a group of men with cabling in Station Street. They spotted the suspects at around midday on 22 September.
The police officers stopped the men and found the cabling they had with them to be stolen.
They also asked them where they intended going to sell the stolen goods. The suspects said they were on their way to MCS Scrap Metals, which is also situated in Station Street.
The police let them continue and, after they had done the transaction, also arrested the business owner.
The men who were caught with the cabling, Messrs. Benisle Mkhanyisele, Artist Ntonzini, Ntilwana Liwabalo and the owner of MCS Scrap Metals, Mr Rudolph Johannes Labuschagne, appeared in the Oberholzer Magistrate’s Court on charges of being in possession of stolen goods on 23 September.
The case was postponed and only Labuschagne has been released on bail to date.
The police are still investigating where the cables were stolen. They again warn businesses not to buy stolen cable, as it is a criminal offense and causes more theft if criminals know that they can easily dispose of their plunder. The arrests came less than a day after Carletonville, Fochville and Welverdiend were left without electricity after cables were stolen on the Eskom side at the West Wits substation.
On Friday afternoon, residents who had not planned to braai on Heritage Day were forced to do so when the electricity in Carletonville went off again just after 15:00. Due to a combination of cable theft and the Merafong City Local Municipality’s lack of security at and maintenance of electrical infrastructure, some areas, like Carletonville Extension 8, were still without electricity by yesterday, 29 September. Thousands of residents in Welverdiend, at Watersedge and the Khutsong extensions, had no electricity at times, due to cable theft during the week.
