Online Reporter
Mashudu Mambo
RESIDENTS of Pumula South suburb in Bulawayo have been left crying foul after thieves pounced on about seven transformer breakers in the area.
A number of areas have been left in darkness as a result of these criminal activities. Ward 17 chairperson of the development committee, Trust Mazwi Mkwananzi stated that they were saddened by the recent spate of cable and transformer breakers thefts.
“As a community, we are concerned about the increase in the number of transformer breaker thefts in the area. Last week, thieves stole transformer breakers and copper cables. These incidents have been happening in the area since January and many of us have had to replace these cables and breakers twice,” he said.
Mkhwananzi indicated that the community members have resorted to outsourcing cables and breakers.
“These incidents have had a huge strain on community members who are forced to use their hard earned money to replace the stolen copper cables and breakers. The challenge is that even in cases where we manage to get the funds to buy the stolen cables, most of the stolen equipment is unavailable in the local shops.
“We are also appealing to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) to come up with ways to secure the cables and breakers so that they cannot be easily stolen by these thieves,” he said.
Mkhwananzi indicated that although the neighbourhood watch committees have tried to fight crime in the area, poor funding has crippled their operations.
Another section leader, Anastasia Chikuni indicated that the copper cables and transformer breakers were stolen last week.
“It’s been a week since our cables were stolen but fortunately on Wednesday, we managed to find some of the stolen cables hidden in the bush. We are hopeful that we will meet up with different stakeholders who will come up with measures to ensure that these cases are reduced,” she said.
Ward 17 Councillor, Sikhululekile Moyo said were engaging different stakeholders in dealing with the crisis.
“We are set to have a meeting with different stakeholders because we have realised that this problem has been there for some time and community members are tired of constantly replacing these stolen items,” she said.
