Cape Town - Five suspected thieves who allegedly stole cables in Langa causing power outages that affected two schools have been arrested.
Furious Zone 27 residents who have been experiencing blackouts since last week caught two of the men on Thursday in possession of cables and handed them over to police.
It was later discovered that they managed to evade arrest at the weekend when a group of men were detained for copper theft.
Police FC van Wyk said Langa police members were doing routine patrols in Zone 27 on Saturday when the station commander arrested three men for theft of copper cables.
“They still remain in police custody. Two other suspects fled the scene on foot and they were apprehended by members of the community and brought to the police station.”
The suspects will appear today at the Bishop Lavis Magistrate’s Court.
Langa Safety Patrol member Ntsikelelo Camagu said that since last Thursday, City workers had repeatedly to return to Zone 22 and 27 for repairs as the community was without electricity.
“The workers came on Thursday for repairs after Ikamvalethu Secondary School and Zimasa Primary school reported the matter. On Friday it was the same problem again and the two schools had to close schooling early.”
Camagu said they thought that was the end of their problem until yesterday they had another power outage. However, residents caught two men.
“We received a call to go to assist in handing over the suspects to police. It is frustrating that the community and our schools get affected because of selfish people. The law must now make an example of these suspects.”
Education spokesperson Millicent Merton confirmed that the two schools were affected by cable theft after they reported to their Safe Schools sub-directorate.
’’The issue was resolved and electricity was restored by midday on Friday. Learning and teaching was fortunately not affected by the power outage.”
Cape Times