Businessman gets 12 years for stealing electricity
By African News Agency
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CAPE TOWN, March 11 (ANA) - An Eastern Cape man has been sentenced to 12 yearsâ imprisonment after being convicted of illegal power connections by the local regional court.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) provincial spokesperson Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said businessman Sandile Andres Ntombela, 34, from Mount Frere was sentenced earlier this week.
Ntombela, along with his business entity Zamdela (Pty) Ltd, was convicted on two counts of theft and fraud.
According to Mgolodela, the Hawksâ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team based in Umtata proved beyond reasonable doubt that Ntombela was responsible for illegal power connections since 2018 at a string of flats he owns around the Badisana location in Mount Frere.
Members of an organised copper cable theft syndicate who cost Eskom and Telkom millions of rand in losses and left thousands of residents in the dark without electricity were handed hefty sentences of between 15 and 20 years imprisonment in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.
National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the five members of the copper cable theft syndicate had raided Telkom, Eskom and small rural towns of copper cable, leaving thousands of residents without services for weeks at a time.
Kwame Harrison, Thomas Osei, Sipho Bila, Nhlanganiso Habe, Francisco Mandinde, David September and Anthony Chauke were found guilty of 50 criminal charges, including counts of racketeering, managing a criminal enterprise, conducting the affairs of a criminal enterprise, 18 counts of fraud, 15 counts of theft and 18 counts of money laundering.