Avatar photo

By Arisja Misselhorn

Journalist


Mpumalanga Telkom contractor arrested for alleged cable theft

The contractor was caught offloading telephone cables in a nearby field.


A contractor for Telkom was arrested for alleged telephone cable theft on Friday afternoon, June 15, Ridge Times reports.

Alf Byleveldt from Jelani Security uncovered the theft when someone called him to investigate suspicious activities in a veld near Brendan Village.

READ MORE: Three Gauteng metros lose R1m a day to cable theft

He found a man offloading a telephone cable between trees, and noticed that the man works for a company that does contract work for Telkom.

“When I confronted him, he denied any wrongdoing and reloaded the cable on to the truck. I tried to stop him, but he nearly drove over me with his vehicle.”

Byleveldt chased after the truck and shot out the rear window with his paintball gun.

The accused kept on driving to a house in Brendan.

Police subsequently arrived on the scene, and arrested the driver of the truck.

They also impounded the truck with the cables they suspect were stolen.

The truck used to transport the suspected stolen cable.

Byleveldt took this photo of the suspect with the suspected stolen Telkom cable.

For more news your way, follow The Citizen on Facebook and Twitter.

Read more on these topics

cable theft Mpumalanga Telkom

Access premium news and stories

Access to the top content, vouchers and other member only benefits