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Mejury Magaya, Midlands Reporter

TWO men have each been sentenced to 10 years in jail for stealing copper cables worth $28 000 from a National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) railway line.

Tafadzwa Wafa (26) from Kwekwe and Tinashe Tafadzwa (22) from Bulawayo appeared before Gweru Provincial Magistrate Mrs Phathekile Msipa each facing a count of cutting, damaging, destroying or interfering with any apparatus for generating, transmitting, distributing or supplying electricity.

Wafa and Tafadzwa pleaded guilty to the charge. Mrs Msipa sentenced them to 10 years each in prison.

Prosecuting, Mr Kelvin Guvheya told the court that on February 20, Wafa and Tafadzwa together with a Panashe, who is still at large, connived and proceeded to Gweru-Kwekwe railway line at Nala area.

“They started digging armoured electricity copper cables using a digger and a shovel. After digging, they cut the cables into pieces of different sizes using a hacksaw,” he said.

The court heard that Wafa and Tafadzwa burnt some of the electric armoured copper cables and retrieved copper wire which they stashed into a sack.

The trio then decided to put up for the night but at a distance away from their loot.

“While the three were asleep, an NRZ security guard who was on patrol with his tracker dog saw them and sought assistance from people who were passing by to apprehend them. Wafa and Tafadzwa were apprehended while their accomplice disappeared into the night,” the court heard.

The court heard that a sack of burnt copper wire, rolls of copper cables, a hacksaw, a hacksaw blade, black polythene plastic paper and a mattock handle were recovered.

The recovered electric copper cables weighed 46 kilogrammes and the copper wire weighed 24 kilogrammes.

The value of the stolen property was $28 000 and it was all recovered.