Two electrocuted
….Kapata says death or long jail term is result of vandalizing installations
TWO thieves have been electrocuted by an 11000 Kilovolts cable they were trying to steal in Lusaka’s Chinika area along Mungwi road. The two men were found dead by passersby a few meters away from the high voltage cable. A check by the Daily Nation found the two bodies still laying on the ground, one with a crashed faced. Some on lookers said that they knew the two to be residents of George Compound in Lusaka. And Zesco spokesperson, Henry Kapata said the two thieves tried to vandalise the power utility company’s 11000 KV before they met their fate. Mr Kapata said that the two had been tracking the cable from about 100 metres away before trying to remove the final part of it. He warned that death or long term jail sentences were the only results of vandalizing Zesco installations. Mr Kapata said that electricity was very dangerous and lethal, adding that people should learn from the consequences of tempering with Zesco installations. “For those who are keeping people in their homes and do not know what they do at night, they should inquire because they will just be told that they have been picked in this manner. Zesco does not rejoice in seeing people die like this,” he said. Mr Kapata said that in as much as the electricity company had a mandate to provide safe electricity, the company needed the support of the community. He said that the company was struggling to progress because it was going back spending money meant for new projects on repairing vandalized installations. Mr Kapata said that Zesco was losing colossal sums of money repairing faults created by human beings. And the two bodies have since been picked up by the police to be placed at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) mortuary.