THREE Bulawayo-based police officers who were on Sunday arrested for allegedly stealing copper cables worth US$7 000 in Pumula East suburb, appeared in court yesterday to apply for bail pending trial.
Residents effected a citizen arrest at about 1AM. One of
the cops was nabbed while wearing his service uniform while his accomplices
were in civilian clothing. They were allegedly found in possession of 23,5kg of
stolen cables.
Tapiwa Taruberekera (39), Rodrick Tauyanago (34) and Kudzai
Wemba (33) all operating from Pumula Police Station, appeared before Western
Commonage resident magistrate Mr Shepherd Mjanja facing charges of contravening
Section 60A (3) (a)(b) of the Electricity Act (cutting, damaging, destroying or
interfering with copper cables for generating, transmitting, distributing or
supplying electricity).
They were remanded in custody to today for ruling on their
bail application.
In their application for bail through their lawyer, Mr
Tinashe Dzipe of Morris Davies and Company, the three cops are denying the
charges, saying the State failed to proffer compelling reasons warranting their
continued detention.
They said there was no evidence linking them to the
offence, arguing that they were just victims of circumstances as they were
arrested about 1km away from the scene.
The trio claimed that the cap, which was found at the scene
of the crime was planted.
Mr Dzipe said his clients were innocent until proven guilty
hence they were entitled to their constitutional right to bail.
He said the State’s view that his clients will abscond once
released on bail was not supported by objective facts, arguing that the three
accused persons were of fixed abode and gainfully employed.
The trio offered to pay $25 000 bail each and to report
twice a week at Nkulumane Police Station as well as to continue residing at
their given addresses.
The State, which was represented by Miss Mellisa Dube,
opposed bail, arguing that given the seriousness of the offence and the
mandatory 10 year-jail term for copper theft, there was no guarantee that if
released on bail, the three will not abscond.
She said there was overwhelming evidence linking the
accused persons to the offence.
“The State is opposing bail for the accused persons because
they are likely to abscond if released on bail.
They are also likely to interfere with State witnesses and
jeopardise investigations as some of the stolen property was not recovered,”
said Miss Dube.
“In the interest of justice, the accused should be remanded
in custody pending trial.”
Prosecuting, Miss Dube said on March 13 in the early
morning hours, the three police officers were spotted by a Pumula East resident
near his house while stealing overhead copper cables belonging to the Zimbabwe
Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC).
The resident alerted other residents and they teamed up and
pursued the accused persons and apprehended them leading to the recovery of
23,5kg of copper cables worth US$7 000.
The court heard that one of the police officers managed to
escape from the scene and rushed to Pumula Police Station where he falsely
reported that he had been attacked by robbers in Pumula East.
The three police officers had parked their car, a Toyota
Starlet, about 1km away from the scene of crime.
Bulawayo has of late been hit by a series of power outages
mostly due to copper cables theft, with several suburbs such as Hillside,
Burnside and Killarney being the worst affected.
Police in Bulawayo recently smashed a well organised copper
theft racket and arrested two suspects and recovered 150kg of overhead copper
conductors worth US$12 000.
The ZETDC is now in the process of replacing copper cables
with aluminium ones.
Zesa Holdings is seeking a review of the sentence for
individuals convicted of stealing power cables and transformers from 10 years
to 30 years to curb the vice that is prejudicing the power utility of more than
US$2 million annually.
ZETDC requires more than US$14 million to procure intruder
detection gadgets to fight the scourge that continues to bleed the power
utility.
The power utility has since invited whistle-blowers to curb
the upsurge in vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure. Chronicle
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