Two municipal workers took the Witbank News to the latest sites of theft, at substations to report on the issue. On the same day
police made an arrest at a local scrap yard where the links were stripped of what little valuable metal they had.
On entering the Malherbe Substation on March 17, the
scars from the previous vandalism incident can still be
seen almost two years later. At the end of the narrow corridor leading between the huge machines are two small yellow boxes tucked away in the corner.
Six out of nine switches are missing from the one, while the other remains untouched. A few questions come to mind.
Why only steel from the box? How did they know where to look? Why leave everything else untouched?
The municipal workers then took the Witbank News to a power box in Del Judor were generators could be heard working hard in the middle of the day. The “sub M” box lay on the ground next to the open door. Most of the switches have been stolen. A resident of the house next to the power box just returned from a 12-hour shift, “When I left this morning the electricity was on,” said the man with a shake of his head. He has lived there for 10 years.
At 16:00 SAPS officers and municipality representatives arrived at a local scrap yard with information that some of these links were sold to the scrap yard. They allegedly found the link casings with any precious metal stripped away already. Theo van Vuuren the administrator commented on the matter, “23 burnt links were found near a recycling business. This then lead the team to the business and after further investigations, police arrested two people working there.” The two people who were arrested at the scrap yard are set to appear in court for their bail application on March 18. The links cost the municipality over R1000 each, but they have a resale value of a little as R10.
The police and the municipality have put these incidents on their high priority list. Through all of this Mr van Vuuren still diligently posts updates on his Facebook page. His comment on the stolen links shows the frustration, the municipality must be experiencing,” Save the Rhino, two killed per day. Save the links, 160 stolen in the last two weeks.”
Two municipal workers took the Witbank News to the latest sites of theft, at substations to report on the issue. On the same day police made an arrest at a local scrap yard where the links were stripped of what little valuable metal they had.
On entering the Malherbe Substation on March 17, the scars from the previous vandalism incident can still be seen almost two years later. At the end of the narrow corridor leading between the huge machines are two small yellow boxes tucked away in the corner.
Six out of nine switches are missing from the one, while the other remains untouched. A few questions come to mind. Why only steel from the box? How did they know where to look? Why leave everything else untouched?
The municipal workers then took the Witbank News to a power box in Del Judor were generators could be heard working hard in the middle of the day. The “sub M” box lay on the ground next to the open door. Most of the switches have been stolen. A resident of the house next to the power box just returned from a 12-hour shift, “When I left this morning the electricity was on,” said the man with a shake of his head. He has lived there for 10 years.
At 16:00 SAPS officers and municipality representatives arrived at a local scrap yard with information that some of these links were sold to the scrap yard. They allegedly found the link casings with any precious metal stripped away already. Theo van Vuuren the administrator commented on the matter, “23 burnt links were found near a recycling business. This then lead the team to the business and after further investigations, police arrested two people working there.” The two people who were arrested at the scrap yard are set to appear in court for their bail application on March 18. The links cost the municipality over R1000 each, but they have a resale value of a little as R10.
The police and the municipality have put these incidents on their high priority list. Through all of this Mr van Vuuren still diligently posts updates on his Facebook page. His comment on the stolen links shows the frustration, the municipality must be experiencing,” Save the Rhino, two killed per day. Save the links, 160 stolen in the last two weeks.”
