Stiffer penalties for copper cable thieves
GOVERNMENT yesterday said it will come up with stiffer penalties following rampant theft of copper cables.
In an interview, the Minister of Energy and Power Development, Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo, said his Ministry was working with the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to come up with more deterrent sentences for the culprits.
He said vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure was tantamount to economic sabotage.
At the moment vandalism and theft of electricity cables attracts a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence but this has not deterred criminals from stealing copper cables.
Ambassador Khaya Moyo said theft and vandalism of energy infrastructure was negatively impacting on Government’s thrust of reviving the economy.
“We want to see the energy sector driving the economy and it cannot drive the economy when there is so much vandalism of its infrastructure,” said Ambassador Khaya Moyo.
He said the situation is worsened by the fact that once the energy infrastructure is destroyed, Government will be forced to import raw materials to replace damaged material.
“There has been vandalism of transformers where the culprits are draining the oil. We replace them and the following day something happens in the same locality or a different one. And you know that the problem is that most of this equipment is imported and we need foreign currency for that. We manufacture very few transformers locally. And even the few we manufacture we need foreign currency to include some raw materials that are imported as well. It’s terrible,” Ambassador Khaya Moyo said.
He appealed to community leaders to lead the fight against vandalism of energy infrastructure, saying no one will be protected if they are found to have had a hand in sabotaging the economy through theft of electricity cables.
“We appeal to all sectors to curb this vandalism and theft of copper cables. There has been a lot of vandalism of various energy infrastructures which curtail the supply of energy to various projects we are implementing,” said Ambassador Khaya Moyo.
“And this affects schools, clinics, health centres . . . basically the entire economy is affected. The energy sector is the centre of any economy. So we will continue to have a challenge in this economy until our people change their conduct.”
He said Government was hoping to craft a more deterrent law.
“We are also reviewing together with the Ministry of Justice, looking at what sterner measures and sentences can be imposed on those who will be apprehended. So it’s a really serious matter and we’re concerned about this and we’re appealing to everyone including scribes to help us to say this is affecting our developmental efforts,” the Minister said.
Recently, police in Matabeleland South apprehended a syndicate of 10 people for allegedly stealing copper cables in Esigodini and Matobo District.
The theft of copper cables has affected businesses, schools and health centres in many provinces. — @nqotshili