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Bongani Ndlovu, Online Reporter

COPPER thieves have hit Bulawayo’s suburbs, targeting cables Zesa, National Railways of Zimbabwe and TelOne cables in a two-day spree that has police worried.

According to police, the copper cable thieves have hit Queens Park, Hillside and Tshabalala suburbs.

Posting on their Twitter page, police said: “ZRP is concerned with cases of theft of copper cables belonging to ZESA, NRZ, TEL-ONE and other utilities. From 20 to 21 March 2022, ZRP Queenspark recorded three cases of theft of ZESA cables while ZRP Hillside and ZRP Tshabalala also recorded a single case each.”

The police are appealing for information leading to the arrest of the copper thieves.

Last week, three Bulawayo-based police officers, who were arrested for allegedly stealing copper cables worth US$7 000 in Pumula East suburb, appeared in court.

Residents effected a citizen arrest at about 1AM. One of the cops was nabbed while wearing his service uniform while his accomplices were in civilian clothing. They were allegedly found in possession of 23,5kg of stolen cables.

Tapiwa Taruberekera (39), Rodrick Tauyanago (34) and Kudzai Wemba (33) all operating from Pumula Police Station, appeared before Western Commonage resident magistrate Mr Shepherd Munjanja facing charges of contravening Section 60A (3) (a)(b) of the Electricity Act (cutting, damaging, destroying or interfering with copper cables for generating, transmitting, distributing or supplying electricity).

They were remanded in custody to today for ruling on their bail application.

In 2020, vandalism and theft of copper cables hit TelOne’s operations, resulting in the firm losing over $50 million in revenue.

Last year, a Bulawayo man, Zimusaka Mwembe (20) from Emganwini was apprehended on Christmas Eve in Nketa allegedly carrying a 50kg sack filled with telephone cables.

He was apprehended by a team of neighbourhood watch committee members.

TelOne Managing Director Mrs Chipo Mtasa at that time said copper cables’ theft resulted in poor service provision by the company, with more than 50 000 subscribers having been affected.