SUNNINGHILL residents woke up without electricity on Tuesday morning after thieves stole overhead copper cables worth an estimated US$15 000.
Bulawayo has of late been hit by a series of power outages
mostly due to copper cables theft, with suburbs such as Hillside, Burnside and
Kensington being the worst affected.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution
Company (ZETDC) is now in the process of replacing the stolen copper cables. Bulawayo
police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube confirmed the incident that
occurred on Monday night.
“Police are carrying out investigations of unknown
suspected persons who allegedly used an unknown object to cut and steal 250
metres by 35 millimetres overhead copper cables and disappeared,” said Insp
Ncube.
The total value of the stolen property is estimated at
US$15 000 and nothing has been recovered. A report was made on Tuesday and
police and ZETDC attended the scene.
Insp Ncube said on the same day Entumbane residents
reported at Entumbane police station that some copper cables were found hanging
on a guava tree.
“Police and ZETDC officials attended the scene and observed
that about 50 metres of earth copper cables were cut and stolen from a pole.
They also noted that in the same area the unknown accused persons had cut and
stolen 100 metres of earth copper cables from a pole. The total value of the
stolen earth copper cables is US$3 500 and nothing was recovered,” said Insp
Ncube.
In both cases accused persons are on the run and
investigations are in progress.
Insp Ncube said police are appealing to anyone with
information that may lead to the arrest of the culprits to report at any
nearest police station.
“Police invite members of the public with information that
may lead to the arrest of the accused persons to contact the nearest police
station.
“We would also like to encourage members of the public to
keep on working together with the police to create any environment which is
crime free,” said Insp Ncube.
Last year, police in Bulawayo arrested two serial copper
cable thieves after using sniffer dogs to fish the two men out of a manhole
while busy cutting copper cables.
One of the suspects appeared in court and was sentenced to
70 years in jail over the US$20 000 copper theft case. Chronicle
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