Zimbabwe: Notorious Bulawayo Copper Cable Thief Jailed 11 Years
A Bulawayo Regional magistrate has jailed a 48-year-old man and ring leader of copper cable thieves for 11 years following conviction on a slew of criminal charges.
The charges emanated from theft of the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) power cables, NRZ property, as well as TelOne telephone poles, signal copper wires and telecommunications copper cables around Bulawayo.
Muzarabani was convicted after a full trial for illegally possessing over five tonnes of stolen copper cables worth approximately US$131,000.
The stolen property was recovered at a house in Mahatshula North during a police operation.
The state said that his activities contributed to widespread disruptions in the electricity supply, railway operations and telecommunication services in the city.
In one of the counts, the complainant is ZETDC.
The court heard that during the period extending from the year 2022 to March 2024, the ZETDC experienced some cases of theft of overhead copper cables, armoured cables and transformers in and around Bulawayo Metropolitan province and made some reports to the police.
Sometime in March 2024, Detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Homicide Bulawayo received information to the effect that accused persons were illegally dealing in copper cables.
“Detectives acting on the information identified the house and placed it under surveillance monitoring the movements and activities of the accused persons which led to the arrest of the accused persons and the subsequent recovery and seizure of a total of 6550 kilograms of copper in various forms with a total value US$131 000-00 of at house number 2024 Mahatshula North Bulawayo,” the court heard.
ZETDC identified 3420 kilograms of armoured cables and overhead copper conductors as their stolen property, which is used for the transmission and distribution of Electricity.
The total value of the recovered property is US$68,400.
By New Zimbabwe.
