Police foil copper cable theft operation

POLICE have arrested one of the three copper cable thieves who connived with a Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) security guard to temporarily abandon his work station in Bulawayo in order to steal the valuable wires.

Detectives from CID Homicide Bulawayo arrested Raymond Dhliwayo (33) of Belmont for theft of copper cables on Sunday afternoon, after receiving a tip off from a concerned resident that three men were stealing copper cables from a ZETDC substation.

“On the 7th of July 2024 at around 16:45 hours, police received information to the effect that there were accused persons stealing copper cables from a ZETDC substation,” Bulawayo police spokesman, Inspector Abednico Ncube, said.

“Detectives quickly reacted to the information and rushed to the scene. Upon arrival they spotted the accused person’s car, a silver Honda parked with three male occupants including the accused person.

“When the accused persons saw the detectives approaching them, they disembarked from their vehicle and started running away into the bush. The detectives managed to arrest one accused person Raymond Dhliwayo and the other two disappeared into the bush.”

He said police searched the accused person’s vehicle and found pieces of copper loaded in sacks.

“The accused further led the detectives into a bushy area where other sacks and two black satchels loaded with copper pieces were recovered,” said Insp Ncube.

“The accused person indicated that they had connived with the security guard at ZETDC substation who left the site to facilitate them to steal the copper from the site during the day.”

A total of 10 sacks and two satchels containing copper were recovered. The value of the stolen copper is yet to be ascertained.

Meanwhile, police are appealing for information that may lead to the arrest of the two suspects who escaped. The duo has been named as Twoboy Tafandiani and a Munyaradzi.

This comes as the power utility, Zesa has stepped up its fight against vandalism and theft with a nationwide project that aims to replace copper cables with aluminium thereby putting criminals out of business for good.

Last year alone, Zesa reported a staggering number of incidents: 1 569 cases of vandalism and theft, with copper specifically targeted in 1 127 of those. These have resulted in significant financial losses for the power utility, totalling over US$3 million.

Copper theft itself amounted to over US$1 million, while vandalism of transformers caused an additional US$1 million-plus in damage.

Last year, 172 offenders were arrested and 33 cases secured convictions, according to figures provided by Zesa Holdings’ communications department.