Twenty-one-old David van Wyk will spend the next decade and a half behind bars after being convicted and sentenced for tampering with essential infrastructure in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court on Monday, August 26.
Van Wyk’s sentence of 14 years and six months comes after he was caught in the act on March 2 this year, cutting the signal cable of a Transnet railway line in Kimberley.
“On Saturday, March 2, 2024, the accused was found cutting the signal cable of a Transnet railway line in Cassandra, Kimberley,” South African Police Service (SAPS) spokesperson Sergeant Molefi Shemane said.
Major General Luntu Ngubelanga, the Acting Provincial Commissioner, praised Sergeant Orapeleng Mosala of Provincial Organised Crime for his thorough investigation and successful conviction and punishment.
Ngubelanga reaffirmed that offences related to the tampering of critical infrastructure remain one of the organisation’s priorities in the province, and the police would demonstrate a zero tolerance stance to protect the safety of essential key points.
In the province, another case of copper theft resulted in the arrest of six suspects.
Police officers, along with those of the Provincial Organised Crime, the Kimberley Flying Squad, and the Kimberley K9 Unit, captured six foreign nationals allegedly involved in the theft of copper cables.
The suspects who are aged from 22 to 40, were allegedly driving from the Western Cape to Johannesburg when they were detained by the authorities near Britstown.
The stolen cable, thought to be Transnet property, was discovered in a veld in Worcester.
IOL