Electricity cable theft alarms police
Pini Bothoko - Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Tuesday January 17, 2023 06:00
Serowe Police Assistant Station Commander, Assistant Superintendent Bophelo Ntatiwa revealed to be overwhelmed by cases of electric cable theft with the hard hit areas being Mannathoko and Semane wards.
Ntatiwa said currently they are investigating two cases that occurred over the weekend but he is worried as they recorded strings of such cases in the past weeks. “These criminals target vacant houses, cut electric cables connecting electric poles to the houses. I am pleading with people to consider leaving someone to occupy their houses rather than leaving them unoccupied for a very long time.
The affected wards have new plots which are still bushy and do not have street lights hence easy for criminals to attack especially at night,” he said. Ntatiwa added that looking at the frequency of the theft incidents, he suspects that the criminals might be having a market and the demand is high for the items. He indicated that they are recording two to three cases in a week of thieves stealing electric copper cables from homes. Meanwhile, the police in Maun are also worried about the escalating cases of the BPC electricity cable theft.
The Maun Police Station Acting Station Commander, Kgakgamatso Koboyatshwene told The Monitor they have registered four cases of electricity cable theft since the beginning of the year. He said the cases were reported in different areas under their policing area from January 1-12. He indicated that so far, over 50 metres of the BPC electricity cable have been stolen.
Koboyatshwene stated they received a report about the stolen BPC electricity cable last Wednesday at Botshabelo ward. He said a complainant aged 58 told the police that he visited his cattle post on January 1 and to his surprise when he returned on the January 11, there was no electricity in his homestead. He indicated that the next day he then realised that the BPC electricity cable was missing.
The Maun acting police boss indicated that the culprits cut and stole 10 metres electricity cable worth P506. In the previous three cases the culprits stole 30m BPC electricity cables worth P1,518. Koboyatshwene said there was a possibility that there were more cases as people are coming to report the theft to the police. Due to the recorded cases, he assumed that there might be a market for electricity cables locally or in neighbouring countries.