The Brakpan Regional Court has sentenced a 33-year-old man to 11 years’ imprisonment for tampering with and stealing essential infrastructure and for lying under oath, following an incident involving copper cable theft worth hundreds of thousands of rand.

Bokang Pito was arrested on April 29, 2023, a day after digging up and stealing copper cables belonging to the City of Ekurhuleni worth R400 000 in Brakpan.

On the day of his arrest, he also made a false statement in an affidavit that his vehicle, a Hyundai Elantra, was taken from him at gunpoint.

He was charged with tampering with essential infrastructure, theft of essential infrastructure and making a false statement in an affidavit.

Pito pleaded not guilty on all three counts but was found guilty on October 21, 2025, and sentenced on January 26.

On the first and second counts, he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment each, to run concurrently, and on count three, he was sentenced to an additional three years.

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