BULAWAYO - Four Bulawayo men have been detained for stealing copper cables worth $30 000.
Mlamuli Maduma, 30, Mthandazo Moyo, 28, Keepwell Tshuma, 35 and Witness Mlilo, 26, appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Sibongile Msipa facing theft charges and the quartet was remanded in custody to March 26.
Allegations are that sometime last month, the four hatched a plan to cut electricity cables and later sell them in South Africa.
Moyo, Tshuma and Mlilo drove Maduma and two other persons who are still at large to the 16km kilometre peg along Bulawayo-Victoria Falls road so that they could cut copper cables in the area.
Maduma and the two men went on to cut a 500m-long cable of the three-line electric power line which cuts across the tarred road.
After cutting the cables they hid them beside the road so that their three accomplices would easily collect them.
After two hours, Moyo, Tshuma and Mlilo went back to collect the copper cables and dropped them at a house in Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park Suburb.
The crew later tampered with the cables to make them soft so that they could fit them into vehicle tyres for easier transportation across the border into South Africa for sale.
Neighbours tipped off the police, leading to their arrest.