Major bungles by Police and AMSA on 9.2 ton Vaal copper bust
VANDERBIJLPARK. - Police Intelligence failures and major gaps in the security of steel giant ArcelorMittal - a National Key Point - were exposed after the Johannesburg High Court last week ordered the return of 9.2 tons of supposedly stolen copper seized in Vanderbijlpark recently.
But more than half of the haul – 5 tons – has in turn been stolen from Vanderrbijlpark ArcelorMittal premises since being transported there by Police after the raid on Envirocycle recently in the same Vaal town, Vaalweekblad has learned.
Envirocycle is also planning to sue for damages after its Vanderbijlpark Branch was shut down with major financial and business losses following the high-profile Police raid, said Envirocycle attorney Ulrich Kruger.
The Firestone Street site has now again open for business.
Lawyers acting for ArcelorMittal have now written a letter to Kruger – who last week obtained an urgent High Court order for the return of the full 9.2 tons of copper – saying it cannot return 5 tons of the haul due to it being stolen from its own premises.
Now that both ArcelorMittal and Police cannot return the full 9.2 tons as ordered by the High Court, Envirocycle Attorneys said they were this week awaiting from both parties their formal plan on how they planned to do so.
Kruger, from Johannesburg legal firm BDK Attorneys, confirmed this to Vaalweekblad this week.
“We also await confirmation from ArcelorMittal that they have laid criminal charges on the theft of 5 tons of the original 9.2 tons of copper from their own premises after being transported there by Police,” said Kruger.
ArcelorMittal has now reportedly set up a special task team led by an independent legal firm to investigate and manage the entire issue.
The issue has acutely embarassed both Police and Africa’s largest steel company and both have refused to formally comment on the raid and court-ordered return and subsequent theft of the copper from ArcelorMittal premises.
The issue has exposed massive intelligence failures by Police on their original raid as well as major gaps in the security of ArcelorMittal, a National Key point which is legally-obliged to provide appropriate security.
The Envirocycle raid was led by the newly-formed Essential Infrastructure Unit set up at Gauteng Provincial level to investigate widespread plundering of municipal and State services infrastructure, and has a sub-unit in Vereeniging.
* Tami Didiza ArcerlorMittal Corporate Communications Manager confirmed: 5.6 tons of copper were stolen, leaving ArcelorMittal with 3.6 tons of this batch. This shows the seriousness of copper theft and criminality. We have opened a criminal case.
