9 held for copper theft

2008-12-31 14:13

Cape Town - Nine employees of the City of Cape Town's electricity services department have been arrested for copper cable theft, the city said on Wednesday.

Head of the city's copper theft task team the Copperheads, Pieter van Dalen, said four of the nine were identified from surveillance video footage showing them removing cable from a substation.

When they were confronted with the footage they implicated the other staff members. They were all arrested on Christmas Eve, charged, and were now out on bail of R1 000 each.

Van Dalen said the value of the stolen cable, weighing 197kg, was about R120 000. All nine had been suspended until the criminal and departmental hearings have been completed.

Van Dalen said that in another raid, thanks to information received from the public, two brothers were arrested in Blue Downs on the Cape Flats with 1 000kg of copper cabling.

The cabling was believed to have been illegally sold to them by a company that had a contract with the section of the city's transport department that installed and maintained traffic lights.

When questioned, the contractor told the city he had stockpiled cable off-cuts during 2008 in order to sell them and give his workers a Christmas braai. However the company was contractually bound to return all off-cuts to the city's stores.

The investigation was continuing and the company would probably lose its contract with the city.

The value of the cable was between R10 000 and R30 000 depending on the scrap value received.

- SAPA