adminAngeline Mpofu Chronicle Reporter
POLICE have arrested four suspects in connection with theft of electric copper cables worth $30,000 which were later smuggled to South Africa.Mlamuli Maduma, 30, and Keepwell Tshuma, 35, both from Cowdray Park, and Mthandazo Peter Moyo, 28, and Witness Mlilo, 26, from Nkulumane appeared before magistrate Sibongile Msipa on Monday facing charges of stealing and smuggling the cables to SA.
The prosecutor, Carol Matanga, said on a date unknown to the court but sometime last month, the four suspects allegedly hatched a plan to steal electricity cables and smuggle them to South Africa.
“Maduma and two other culprits, Mbuso Khoza and Mbonisi Dube, who are still at large went to Greenvale along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road under cover of darkness and used a rope to pull down overhead power conductors before they cut off about 500 metres,” said Matanga.
She said the suspects rolled the cables and carried them to the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road.
“They hid the cables on the roadside where their accomplices, Tshuma, Mlilo and Moyo collected them in their twin cab vehicle and ferried them to house number 6514 Cowdray Park,” said Matanga.
She said the accused later heat the cables to soften them before stuffing them into tyres.
Matanga said the cables were then ferried to South Africa. The police, acting on a tip off from residents, arrested the crew last Friday but nothing was recovered.
The four were remanded in custody to March 26.
Online Reporter