Power thief loses freedom

Thandeka Moyo Court Reporter
A FORMER Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) employee will spend the next two years in prison for illegally reconnecting electricity to some households in Njube for a fee while pretending to be representing the company. Vusa Moyo, 26, from Cowdray Park was jailed by Western Commonage magistrate Temba Chimiso for diverting electric current.

Moyo who targeted Njube residents and demanded $20 for every reconnection, pleaded guilty to the crime.
“This is a first offender who did not waste the court’s time but because his case is aggravatory in that he has four counts of the same crime, he must get a custodial sentence. You are therefore sentenced to 24 months imprisonment,” said magistrate Chimiso.

The state case led by Mitchelle Chiboiwa is that in July this year, Moyo went to a house in Njube wearing a ZETDC uniform and claimed that he had been sent by the company to reconnect power supplies that had been disconnected.
He charged the owner $20 for his services and was paid.

He repeated the trick at two other houses where electricity had been disconnected and got $20 payments at each house.
Moyo ran into problems when the owner of a house where he had reconnected electricity on July 7 became suspicious after he demanded payment and reported the matter to the police.
A trap was set and on July 28, Moyo was arrested after he was handed $20 by the owner of the house.