Cable theft sees employee arrested
The suspects will soon appear in court, and the municipal employee will also face internal disciplinary action.
Three people were arrested and a truck carrying stolen electrical cable worth about R1.2m was confiscated in Alberton on February 13.
The city’s Anti-Cable Theft Task Team and a private security company intercepted the truck just before it left with the cable from the city’s stores in Alberton.
“Among the three suspects is an employee who works as a clerk at Alberton stores, which worsens the situation because we expect our employees to protect municipal infrastructure at all times.
“Preliminary investigations show the employee issued fraudulent documents for the release of the cable from the stores,” city’s spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said.
“Cable theft is a problem for the city, and we spend millions on security companies to patrol and monitor our infrastructure.”
He added that a lot of money goes to replacing stolen cables. The CoE loses more than R90m annually because of cable theft.
The three will soon appear in court.
The municipal official will also face an internal disciplinary process.
