People are suffering because of loadshedding and criminals see it as an opportunity to steal cables and sell it to scrap yards. The Duncan Village community under Ward 1, East London was in darkness for days after cables were stolen.
Community members took it upon themselves to find the suspects and they managed to get one out of three who led them to the scrap yard called Naas Scrap in Amalinda, East London where they allegedly sold the stolen cables. The Buffalo City Metro Municipality has opened a case against the suspect apprehended by the community. The Buffalo City Municipality’s spokesperson Sipho Ngwenya said, the municipality condemns cable theft and that scrap yard owners should also be held accountable for buying stolen goods.
“These scrap yards are reason why criminals keep on stealing cables because they purchase scrap metals without asking for any form of license or proof of ownership from the seller. However, the dealers should also be arrested because they play a part in this crime,” Sipho Ngwenya.
Mr Ngwenya also added that as the municipality they supporte the call of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) to close scrap yards that buy scrap metals for a minimum of three to six months and see if it would not make a difference. The DTIC has gazetted its drafted policy to regulate and restrict the trade of scrap metal in South Africa for public comments.
Stolen goods were discovered in the premises of Naas Scrap and it is believed that the goods were stolen in different occasions, police confiscated the stolen goods as part of their investigation. The suspects received and amount of R759 from the previous incident and for the recent one they got paid R1300. Two other suspects are still at large.
