adminMidlands Correspondent
THE Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), lost copper cables worth $608,340 and 11,000 litres of transformer oil valued at $167,000 to vandalism and theft in the Southern Region last year.
ZETDC general manager for the Southern Region, King Fazo Dube said about 42,000 metres of copper were stolen last year, resulting in the power utility losing potential revenue amounting to about $780,000.
“The region is experiencing losses due to theft of mainly transformer oil and copper conductors. We also experience vandalism of transformers by thieves who will be after transformer windings which are made of copper. , We lost revenue amounting to $774,795 due to copper and transformer oil theft last year. A total of 41,266 metres of copper wire valued at $608 340 were stolen in 2013 and 11,109 litres of transformer oil was also drained in the same year,” he said.
ZETDC Southern region covers Midlands, parts of Mashonaland East and Matabeleland North.
Eng Dube said ZETDC was making inroads in addressing the scourge by holding awareness campaigns and working in partnership with the police who have since apprehended eight suspects whose cases are at different stages of finalisation.
He said: “We are glad that the long arm of the law managed to arrest three people for stealing transformer oil and are now awaiting sentence. Furthermore, five accused persons were arrested for copper theft and their case is still pending before the courts. Our risk team is working hand in glove with the police to arrest these unscrupulous people. We regularly run awareness campaigns in all parts of our region”.
He added that the transformer oil has a ready market as commuter omnibus operators use it as fuel while copper is smuggled to South Africa.
Online Reporter