Two get 10 years imprisonment each for tampering with essential infrastructure
Johannesburg district commissioner Major General Nonhlanhla Kubheka welcomes the sentences.
Booysens Magistrate’s Court sentenced David Nxumalo (40) and Bruce Maurice (45) to 10 years of direct imprisonment, each for tampering with essential infrastructure.
Nxumalo was sentenced on May 15 after the security guard at Booysens Reserve found him on November 4, 2024, illegally connecting electricity from City Power’s electricity pillar box to the nearby flats. He was arrested and detained at Booysens police station.
Maurice, also sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
He was arrested on September 4, 2024, at about 21:50, after the police received information about a suspicious man stealing copper cable along a street in Rosettenville. The police found Maurice pulling a dustbin and subsequently searched him. Inside the dustbin, the police recovered about five meters of stolen copper cable.
Further investigation led the police to a nearby Telkom manhole with an opened lid. A Telkom technician confirmed that the stolen cable was from the hole.
The police arrested Maurice for tampering with essential infrastructure. On May 12, the Booysens Magistrate’s Court found him guilty and gave him his sentence.
Johannesburg district commissioner Major General Nonhlanhla Kubheka said, “The sentence given to the two men should serve as a deterrent to those who intend to tamper with any form of essential infrastructure.”
