Chronicle Editor
Kudzai Chikiwa, Chronicle Reporter
POLICE in Bulawayo have embarked on patrols in areas on the outskirts of the city where they have recorded increased cases of theft of copper cables.
Electricity power cable theft has often left sections of the city without power and continues to cost the economy millions of dollars in lost production hours every year.
In an interview recently, Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Chief Inspector Precious Simango said police have joined hands with the country’s power utility, Zesa in curbing copper cable theft.
“We handle more cases of copper cable theft in peripheral suburbs compared to the Central Business District (CBD) and western suburbs.
Police will be patrolling in these suburbs making sure that no one tampers with Zesa infrastructure. The increase of cases of copper cable theft in Bulawayo is worrisome. Sometimes it takes time for Zesa to attend crime scenes and a slow reaction results in increase in crime,” she said.
Chief Insp Simango said police will hold awareness campaigns conscientising residents on the importance of Zesa infrastructure. “These campaigns aim at making residents understand that Zesa infrastructure is of paramount importance. Tampering with copper cables can cause unnecessary loss of life,” she said.
Police urged residents to report all power cuts to Zesa or police as outages are most of the time as a result of vandalism of infrastructure.
“Load shedding ceased in 2015 which means any power outage may be owing to faults or vandalism. We urge residents to report such cases as soon as they have a black-out. If they delay reporting, they give culprits a chance to escape,” said Chief Insp Simango.
She invited whistle-blowers to curb the upsurge in vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure.
“We call upon residents to join hands with the police and Zesa in reporting any suspected case of vandalism. We are saying it is our joint responsibility to preserve this infrastructure as it is important to our economy,” she said.
Recently, the country’s power utility revealed that it had lost transformers worth about $20 million and hundreds of copper cable rods to theft and vandalism of the infrastructure.
In an interview, Zesa spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira said vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure has become a serious problem in their operations to the level of economic sabotage.
“The country is losing three transformers every night, with about 4 000 having been lost so far. These are imported materials, which cost about $5 000 each bringing the total loss to $20 million to date,” he said.
Mr Gwasira said theft and vandalism of Zesa infrastructure has become prevalent throughout the country. “Replacement of transformers is very costly as they are imported. With the country experiencing such losses, theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure incidents have become a serious cause for concern and should be declared a state of emergency. The criminal elements should be charged with treason as their crimes are tantamount to economic sabotage,” he said.
Recently, a Beitbridge-based copper cables thief Kudakwashe Gwangwava who was caught in the act by alert Zesa officers in Kensington, on the outskirts of Bulawayo, was sentenced to an effective 10 years in jail. – @tamary98
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