Two scrapyard owners have been arrested after being found in possession of copper cables that were allegedly stolen in the Johannesburg inner city on Monday night‚ causing a large portion of the city to be plunged into darkness.
The cables were allegedly stolen from underground tunnels running under the streets.
Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba said the arrests followed a tip-off from a member of public to the City’s Group Forensic Department on Tuesday afternoon.
“Upon investigation‚ three drums loaded with the stolen copper cables were located at the scrapyard and identified by City Power engineers as the stolen cables. The owners of the scrapyard could not account for the stolen cables‚ which according to workers on site‚ had arrived earlier today.
“It is alleged that more of the stolen copper cables are at another 2 other scrapyards in Robertsville.
“One of the scrapyard owners also allegedly attempted to bribe City and law enforcement officials with R10‚000 in exchange for their silence. Unfortunately for the suspect‚ the officials could not be swayed‚” Mashaba said.
- TimesLIVE
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