Freeman Razemba
Senior Reporter
A 35-YEAR-OLD man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for vandalising public utilities after he was arrested in Southerton, Harare, carrying a sack containing about 500 metres of stolen copper cables.
Fungai Craig Mangwiro was convicted and sentenced to the mandatory 10-year jail term when he appeared before Mbare magistrate Mr Brighton Dokera.
Mr Taona Mashaka prosecuted.
The sentence comes as police continue to crack down on the theft and vandalism of telecommunications and other public infrastructure, with two more suspects recently arrested in connection with a similar case in Harare.
The State case was that on September 25, detectives from the CID Minerals, Flora and Fauna Unit received information that Mangwiro was in possession of copper cables.
Acting on the tip-off, detectives proceeded to Southerton, where they intercepted Mangwiro carrying a white sack.
A search of the sack resulted in the recovery of about 500 metres of copper drop wires.
Mangwiro subsequently led detectives to an area at the intersection of Lyndo Moore and Boyd roads in Southerton, where investigations established that the cables had been stolen.
Meanwhile, police recently arrested two other Harare men, Malcom Rome Zelph and Christopher Williams, both of Arcadia, following the alleged vandalism of telecommunications infrastructure along Paget Road in Lower Hillside.
The two were arrested after members of the public alerted police that they had allegedly seen them stealing telecommunications infrastructure in the area.
Police arrested Zelph and recovered a bag containing about 105 metres of overhead copper drop wires.
Zelph subsequently implicated Williams as his alleged accomplice.
The two appeared before the Epworth Regional Court and were remanded in custody for a bail application.
