Johannesburg - City of Johannesburg's waste management entity, Pikitup, said on Tuesday that it had recently managed to facilitate the arrest of two suspects who were charged with theft after stealing four skip bins.
MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Nico de Jager, said that following the arrest of a second suspect, 10 more skip bins were discovered in his yard. The 14 skip bins that have been found were worth over R200 000.
Pikitup's range of skip bins varies in sizes, from 5mᵌ to 18 mᵌ, to suit different commercial and industrial waste requirements.
De Jager said that a Pikitup employee managed to stop the theft of these skip bins in the Joburg CBD after stopping a truck that was loading them.
He said the employee inquired as to why the truck was loading Pikitup's skip bins since only trucks belonging to Pikitup are permitted to load the skips bins.
"According to the employee, the driver of the truck informed him that he was given permission by Pikitup to collect the skip bins for disposal purposes," de Jager said.
"The letter of authority that the truck driver produced was written in a fake Pikitup letterhead and the contact details used in the letter were not that of the waste management company.
"The fake letter also stated that an employee of Pikitup authorized the disposal of the skip bins. However, they were found to have used a Pikitup employees' details fraudulently."
De Jager welcomed the arrests and thanked the Pikitup employee for safeguarding company property.
"Ultimately, this is the property of all who live in Johannesburg, and we all need to ensure that it does not end up in the wrong hands," de Jager said.
"The City will continue to work towards ensuring the safekeeping of our infrastructure in order to deliver quality services to our residents."