Cable theft syndicate sentenced

4 April 2023

The High Court of South Africa: Western Cape Division has sentenced five members of a Johannesburg-based syndicate that stole Telkom, Transnet, and Eskom overhead copper cables worth millions of rands between 2012 and 2015. The syndicate members, Malome Matsetela, Amos Ngobeni, Samuel Ngwenya, Linda Malopi and Wilson Khoza were also convicted and sentenced on racketeering and money laundering charges.

Matsetela was sentenced to 77 years imprisonment for theft of overhead copper cables, racketeering and money laundering. For the of overhead copper cables between Pofadder and Kenhard, Steinkopf and Port Nolloth, Bedfordview, Malvern East in Gauteng and Stanhope in Malvern, Malome was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment. The court sentenced him to 27 years imprisonment for racketeering and 10 years imprisonment for four counts of money laundering. The court ordered some of the sentences to run concurrently leaving Malome to serve an effective 18-year imprisonment.

Ngobeni was sentenced to 39 years imprisonment in total, but the court ordered some of the sentences to run concurrently. He was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for racketeering, 23 years imprisonment for theft of overhead cables between Oudtshoorn and Prins Albert, Pofadder and Kenhardt, Steinkopf and Port Nolloth and in Williston. He was further sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for four counts of money laundering. He is going to serve an effective 15-year imprisonment.

Ngwenya received to 8 years imprisonment for racketeering, 27 years imprisonment for theft of overhead copper cables between Pofadder and Kenhardt, Steinkopf and Port Nolloth and Williston. He was handed a further 10 years imprisonment for four counts of money laundering. He will serve an effective 8-year imprisonment after some of his sentences in the combined 35 years imprisonment were ordered to run concurrently.

Malopi will serve an effective 17-year imprisonment instead of the 31-year sentence handed down to him as the court ordered some of his sentences to run concurrently. He was handed to 8 years imprisonment for racketeering, 15 years imprisonment for theft of overhead cable between Pofadder and Kenhardt and Steinkopf and Port Nolloth. He also received 8 years imprisonment for three counts of money laundering.

Khoza will also serve eight years imprisonment instead of the 18 years imprisonment imposed on him. Khoza was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for racketeering and 10 years imprisonment for theft of overhead cables in Kimberley and Brakpan.

The syndicate’s spree on infrastructure plundering came to a holt in the early hours of 10 November 2012 when a silent alarm was triggered after Ngobeni and Ngwenya cut the Telkom overhead cables between Oudtshoorn and Prins Albert. Police arrested them and overheard them saying they were supposed to be picked up with the stolen overhead Telkom cables by a third suspect. Police noticed a vehicle driving in the direction where the suspects were arrested and gave chase. The driver of the vehicle abandoned the vehicle and ran away. The investigation was then taken over by the Hawks George Unit due to the increase in Telkom overhead cables theft in the southern Cape at the time. The Hawks discovered that the vehicle that was supposed to pick up the two arrested suspects was rented from a vehicle rental company, Mundzhedzi Consulting, in Diepkloof, Soweto. Th company belonged to Takalani Makananisi.

Further investigation revealed that the syndicate used the vehicles to steal Telkom, Eskom and Transnet overhead cables in the Western Cape and Northern Cape and then transport them to Malvern, Johannesburg, where they were offloaded at Malvern Scrap Metal owned by Matsetela. Matsetela transported the stolen copper cables to SA Metals, Bedfordview, where he sold it. He would then pay the rest of the accused.

Senior State Advocate John Ryneveld told the court that Matsetela received more than R15m between the period of 01 November 2012 to 02 September 2014 from SA Metals 241 transactions. Adv Ryneveld further told the court that Ngobeni received R119 480 between the period of 4 June 2013 to 13 August 2014, Ngwenya received R506 114 rand between the period of July 2013 to November 2012 to 15 April 2014 and Khoza received R 446 925.00 between the period 4 March 2013 to 29 July 2014.

Welcoming the sentence, Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions Adv Nicolette Bell said: “I want to commend the investigating and prosecuting teams for the work they have done to ensure that these accused are arrested and successfully prosecuted for plundering state infrastructure. Copper theft has an adverse effect on service delivery and negatively impacts on the economy.”

Issued by Eric Ntabazalila, Regional Communications Manager, National Prosecuting Authority: Western Cape, 4 April 2023