Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
TWO Bulawayo men who cut 33 rolls of electricity copper cables weighing 460kg from a power line that connects Hwange Colliery Company and Chilota mini power station outside the coal mining town have been sentenced to 10 years in jail each.
Talent Tamanikwa Mukomberanwa (37) of 72681 Lobengula West and Cashion Tshuma (40) of 642 Mpopoma suburb in Bulawayo pleaded not guilty to cutting, damaging, destroying or interfering with any apparatus for generating, transmitting or distributing electricity.
Hwange regional magistrate, Mr Collet Ncube, convicted the duo due to overwhelming evidence.
Mukomberanwa and Tshuma were part of a pirating kombi crew between Victoria Falls and Bulawayo using a Mercedes Benz Sprinter that cut the cables in April.
They were arrested in Bulawayo in June after evading police for over a month.
Prosecuting, Ms Memory Munsaka said on April 26 Mukomberanwa and Tshuma were driving a Mercedes Benz Sprinter to Hwange where they cut 33 rolls of copper conductors weighing 460kg.
“On April 26, a Hwange Colliery Company security team comprising Arnold Chikoore and Kedrick Sithole together with Constable Ezra Saukani from Hwange Police Station were on patrol in Hwange when they received a phone call from Hwange Colliery systems control office that power had tripped at Chilota along the Zambezi Powerline,” said the prosecutor.
The reaction team drove towards Chilota to check on the cause of the power outage and as they approached the area, they spotted a Sprinter parked at the roadside with lights off.
Mukomberanwa and Tshuma drove off resulting in a high speed chase.
Mukomberanwa, who was driving, stopped the vehicle and both men jumped off and ran into the bush.
Police searched the vehicle and found 33 rolls of copper conductors weighing 460kg, two bolt cutters, two small axes, three pairs of insulation gloves, a claw hammer and a small digital scale.
Investigations led to the arrest of the duo. — @ncubeleon
Online Reporter