Durban — Seven men are expected to appear in court on Monday on charges of possession of suspected stolen property and damage or tampering with essential infrastructure.
KwaZulu-Natal Hawks spokesperson Captain Bonnie Nxumalo said the seven suspects, aged between 24 and 64, are expected to appear in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Monday, October 16.
“They are facing charges of possession of suspected stolen property and damage or tampering with essential infrastructure,” Nxumalo said.
She said that the suspects were arrested by the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team based in Durban working with Combined Private Investigation after information of illicit activities being conducted at Queensmead Industrial Park was received.
“Police entered the premises on Martin Drive in Malvern where they found seven men and three bakkies loaded with more than two tons of copper cable.
“The suspects could not provide information of where they got the cables. Officials from the eThekwini Municipality and Telkom identified the cables with an estimated street value of more than R338 000,” Nxumalo said.
Hawks provincial head Major-General (Dr) Lesetja Senona applauded the team on the recovery and arrest of the suspects.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated incident in May, a multidisciplinary team went in search of a vehicle suspected to be used in a recent spate of copper cable theft in eManzimtoti.
The vehicle was spotted, whereby the suspects abandoned it and fled on foot. SAPS were notified as well as investigators from the eThekwini Infrastructure Theft unit. The boot of the vehicle was found to contain more than 300kg of electrical copper cable.
At the time of the incident, KZN police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said that eManzimtoti police are investigating a case of tampering with essential infrastructure following an incident where copper cables were recovered on May 30, 2023, at Illovo North.
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