FIVE National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) employees appeared at the Bulawayo Magistrates’ Court last week charged with stealing 2 230 kilogrammes of copper coils worth $4 000, which they sold to copper dealers in the city.
BY SILAS NKALA
The suspects — Nicholas Mureverwi (59), Michael Mavunga (59), George Mnkandla (56), Sunday Tshuma (56) and Cosmas Ndlovu (42) denied the theft charge when they appeared before Bulawayo magistrate, Gladmore Mushove last week.
They were granted $100 bail and remanded to January 11 next year.
The court heard that sometime between May and June this year, the five connived to steal from the NRZ storeroom. To gain entry, they collected keys from security guards and allegedly stole the coils at different intervals. The suspects then sold the coils to four copper dealers, namely Laston Sangwe, Adolf Gomba, Busani Ndiweni and Tonderai Makahamadze, who were also arrested.
It is alleged that on July 5 this year, detectives from minerals unit in Bulawayo were tipped-off that there was a South African truck loaded with scrap metal and copper was concealed under the scrap metal. The police officers intercepted the truck and it was offloaded and copper weighing 2 230kg was recovered, leading to the arrest of the dealers, who in turn implicated the NRZ workers.
