Men found with cellphone tower batteries get 12 years each

Two men were both sentenced to an effective 12 years' imprisonment on Tuesday after they were found guilty of the theft of six Vodacom cellphone tower batteries by the Villiers magistrate’s court in the Free State.  

Welile Ndlovu, 51, and Optimus Nshuma, 28, were arrested on September 29 2020 after police received a tip-off that a Toyota bakkie was driving to the N3 with suspected stolen goods.  

Police stopped the vehicle on the N3 with three occupants and asked to search it.

"They found 16 Vodacom cellphone tower batteries and arrested all three occupants because they could not give a proper explanation why they were in possession of the batteries,” said National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phaladi Shuping. 

He said 10 tower batteries were found to have been stolen in KwaZulu-Natal and had serial numbers. The accused are facing charges in relation to those batteries in that province.

They were only charged for theft of six tower batteries in the Free State as the serial numbers were filed off. 

All three accused were released on bail but the third accused, Bongani Ndlovu, 26, failed to come to court and he is at large.  

“In their attempt to evade justice during the trial, Ndlovu and Nshuma told the court they do not know anything about stolen cellphone tower batteries as they were only given a lift by Bongani Ndlovu. They said Bongani asked Welile to drive the vehicle because he was tired." 

Prosecutor Mphakamise Teki asked the investigating officer Neels du Rand to investigate the cellphone data of the accused and it revealed all three travelled together from Johannesburg until their arrest in Villiers. 

 TimesLIVE