South African police in Pretoria have arrested three persons for their involvement in the stealing of drums of cable belonging to South Africa’s power utility company, Eskom.
The arrests followed an armed robbery incident that occurred at the Wolmaransstad Customer Network Centre (CNC) in Klerksdorp on Monday, 7th October 2024, at approximately 00:57, Eskom said in a statement on Thursday.
During the incident, unknown armed suspects entered the CNC and loaded 16 drums of Eskom cable valued at R1,051,530.00($56,651.29) onto the trucks and fled the scene.
The three suspects were put before Wolmaransstad Magistrate Court on Wednesday, October 30, 2024.
Eskom said the two trucks involved in the crime had been impounded from their unscrupulous owner and would be presented as evidence.
Eskom commended the tireless and exceptional investigative work by the SAPS Head Office Detective team, which led to the arrests of the suspects.
“We hope the suspects face the full might of the law and believe that the three suspects may be linked to several other similar armed robbery incidents committed recently at other Eskom CNCs.
“We are committed to safeguarding the security and integrity of our critical infrastructure,” Eskom said.
According to Eskom, the ongoing collaboration between its internal security investigations team and law enforcement agencies, co-ordinated by the National Energy Crisis Committee’s (NECOM) Safety and Security Priority Committee, continue to yield significant positive results in our efforts to combat crime and corruption.
Eskom said it remained steadfast in its stance against criminal activities and urged members of the public to report any information related to unlawful activities, including armed robberies, illegal electricity sales, fraud, theft of coal, fuel oil, diesel, and critical and essential infrastructure crimes.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com