Durban - Eskom has welcomed the combined 27 year prison sentence that was handed down by the Bronkhorstspruit Regional Court to two criminals convicted of stealing more than 4km of state owned cables.
Anye Valentine Nkwenti and Happy Dube were found guilty of stealing Eskom’s aluminium cables in 2018.
They were sentenced to 15 years and 12 years, respectively, by the Bronkhorstspruit Court earlier this month.
The suspects were caught evading the cops at Ystervarkfontein in the Welbekend area, just north of Pretoria.
Kith Maitisa, Eskom’s Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) manager in Gauteng, welcomed the convictions.
Maitisa expressed his gratitude to the Eskom employees, security company and SAPS for bringing the suspects to book.
According to Eskom, cable theft costs the ailing state owned power utility around R2 billion per annum.
It said cable theft, which eventually leads to illegal connections, “often leads to power outages and affects the supply”.
“Gauteng experiences a lot of cable theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure. The arrests are part of our heightened efforts to curb criminal acts that affect customers, disrupt people’s livelihoods and the future of the country,” Maitisa said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in KwaZulu-Natal, five men convicted for stealing copper cables from Transnet railway lines in Mahlabathini have been jailed.
They were sentenced in the Newcastle Regional Court.
IOL