Four suspects appear in court for alleged copper cable theft

Brigadier Lindani Ndlovu from Vosman Police Station has confirmed the arrest of these suspects.

August 3, 2021

Emmanuel N Mthimunye 2 minutes read

Four suspects who are between the age of 27 and 43 have appeared before Witbank Magistrate’s Court facing charges of theft of copper cables.

The suspects appeared in court on Friday, July 30 after their arrest on Thursday, July 29.

Brigadier Lindani Ndlovu from Vosman Police Station has confirmed the arrest of these suspects.

According to Brigadier Ndlovu the suspects were arrested by the SAPS Middelburg Flying Squad on the N4 highway near Balmoral.

Police members were on duty patrolling when they saw a suspicious Toyota Quantum with four men travelling towards Gauteng and they pulled it off for a search.

While they were busy searching it, they found 13 rolls of stripped copper hidden underneath the seats and that led them to arrest the suspects for having allegedly stolen copper with an estimated value of R25 000.

After the arrest took place, Brigadier Lindani Ndlovu acknowledged the police for being vigilant while on duty.

“Copper theft is a big challenge in Vosman and we request the community to assist police so that we all work as a collective to stop criminals from damaging the much needed significant infrastructure. When suspects steal copper cable, good citizens suffer as a result of electric cuts and related needs. Police will spread their wings to check as to where the copper was stolen. I salute the police for doing a magnificent job,” said Brigadier Ndlovu.

On the same day, another crime of copper cable theft was reported at Witbank Police Station. In this case, the complainant received copper cable and he put them in a building that they were busy constructing. At about 16: 00 he found that the copper cables were missing from the premises and he reported this matter to Witbank Police Station.

Following this issue of cable theft, Captain Eddie Hall from Witbank Police Station said they are encouraging people to report these criminal activities and they are also urging people to stop buying stolen properties to cripple the market for criminals. Therefore people are advised to report incidents on the Crime Stop Number: 08600 1011

Emalahleni Municipality spokesperson Mr Lebo Mofokeng said the issue of copper cable theft must come to an end because it’s destroying the financial stability of the municipality and the results of that are suffered by the community.

“Copper cable theft is a serious crime and it causes inconvenience as well as problems between the community and the municipality again it also costs the municipality lots of money. Money that should be used for service delivery will then have to be used in recouping the stolen cables.

As Emalahleni Municipality we urge people to report cable thefts to the police or to the municipality so that this toxic behaviour could come to an end,” he said

According to Mofokeng the municipality is struggling to service the Eskom accounts due to non-payment of services and yet still people are stealing the cables and that makes things difficult for the municipality to provide electricity for the community at large.

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