ZVISHAVANE – Four men were yesterday convicted and sentenced to a 10-year jail term each for stealing 450 metres of copper cables and pylons belonging to the Zimbabwe Electricity and Distribution Company (ZETDC), plunging the whole Zvishavane community in darkness for more than 20 hours last October.
BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
The four are Brighton Mabweazara (35), Simbarashe Jonasi (30), George Maruta (26), and Cain Mandhlokuwa (40).
They were caught on site by police detectives from the Minerals Border Control Unit for Zvishavane after they had already cut cables valued at $12 000.
“All the four accused are first offenders, but ZETDC has incurred heavy losses due to vandalism and consequent repairs,” Zvishavane magistrate Story Rushambwa said before passing sentence.
“As a result of massive thefts, we are having unnecessary power outages and the general public has suffered a lot . . . We are losing lives in hospitals due to power outages. There is no special circumstance to save you from a stiffer penalty.”
During the same period last year, Gweru District ZETDC network manager Cousins Manase revealed that the parastatal lost more than 13 500 tonnes of copper wire in the southern part of the country to vandalism.
