A 59-year-old scrapyard manager has been arrested after police recovered bags of copper cables from a premises in Durban’s Queensburgh area on Wednesday afternoon.
Police said the stolen cables are valued at around R20 million.
“Police gathered intelligence on Tuesday about illegal activities which were happening at the scrapyard on Martin Drive in Queensburgh,” explained KwaZulu-Natal South African Police Service spokesperson, Colonel Robert Netshiunda.
He said an operation spearheaded by the Public Order Policing unit was then set into motion.
“On Wednesday morning, the operation, which also involved members of the Hawks, was executed and large amount of copper was found. The eThekwini Municipality officials confirmed that the bulk of the stolen copper recovered belong to the municipality,” Netshiunda added.
A man who identified himself as the manager of the scrapyard was detained.
Netshiunda said the man will appear in court in due course.
In June, the SAPS eThekwini Economic Infrastructure Task Team recovered copper cables, valued at R450,000 from a premises in Isipingo.
At the time, three men aged between 32 and 46, were spotted with a bakkie loaded with copper. The men could not account for where or how they came to be in possession of the property.
The trio, all foreign nationals, were arrested and charged for tampering with essential infrastructure.
A research report, released by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime revealed the crippling impact that copper cable theft poses on municipalities and state-owned entities in the country.
Corruption Watch further reported on how, while thefts are carried out by criminals, it forms part of a much larger network linked to bigger syndicates involved in kidnapping, the drug trade, and organized crime.
-IOL
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