The damaged infrastructure is hugely blamed on the municipality. Is it really just them or does the community have a hand in this?
A local resident, Mr Piet Wassenaar was driving on the dirt road on his way to Doornpoort sub station on Thursday, September 20.
He spotted people in the field but it was too far for him to see what they were doing. He drove there, thinking they were dumping illegally and saw to his surprise that they were busy digging out and cutting up a big water pipe.
“I got out my car and asked whether they have permission to cut the pipe. They said they do and they are only here for the owner of the truck, who has permission,” said Wassenaar.
The truck belongs to a scrap metal business.
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They told Wassenaar that the owner of the business was on his way.
“I phoned law enforcement in the meantime and was told that they are not aware of this being authorised, but they will send someone. The owner of the truck arrived shortly thereafter and I asked him whether he has permission and he told me that he is just hiring the truck and cutting torch to the workers. I immediately knew someone was lying,” Wassenaar continued.
“The suspects then got edgy so I called backup from the SACCW (South African Community Crime Watch) and law enforcement also attended to the scene.”
He added that the suspects were taken to the police station and four of the suspects were locked up, and are currently still behind bars.
They briefly appeared in court on Friday, September 21 and were denied bail.
The pipes that were dug out from under ground and cut up.
Mr Kingdom Mabuza, municipal spokesperson was contacted for comment and he said:
“We are excited that police have arrested suspects in connection with the theft of water infrastructure. We encourage law enforcement agencies to smash syndicates and individuals whose criminal behaviour brings misery to the community.”
He added that each time electricity and water infrastructure gets stolen, it affects the community because they cannot get water and electricity supply. He continued by saying that:
“As the municipality we are often blamed when services are interrupted even if, in most cases, it is not out of our own making. We hope the justice system, in the event that the accused are found guilty, will send a strong message that theft and destruction of government property is a crime against multitude of people.”
The suspects appeared in court on Friday, September 11. The case was postponed to Monday, October 1 and the four suspects were released on bail of R 1000 each.
The case was postponed again to 1 November for further investigation.
The company involved stated that they are in no position to comment about the case.
