Harare, (New Ziana) – Three men have been sentenced to a combined 29 years in jail for two separate incidents involving vandalism of Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) infrastructure.

ZESA annually suffers about US$20 million in losses through vandalism of its infrastructure, and contravention of the Electricity Act attracts mandatory jail terms of between nine and 10 years.

The National Prosecution Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) said the men were convicted and sentenced by the Chivhu and Harare Magistrates Courts after they were found in possession of transmission cables belonging to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), a ZESA subsidiary, and for breaking into a substation.

Themba Matarirano, 40 and Learnmore Dzirabwi 20 were arrested on January 30 this year at a roadblock while traveling from Masvingo to Harare. They were arrested after the police conducted a search on the bus and found 276.5kg of copper conductors in their sacks.

The men failed to produce ownership documents and were arrested. They were each sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Chivhu Magistrate Court.

Separately, Levison Mukata, 42 was arrested in April this year for ZETDC cable theft after he and a fugitive colleague vandalized a ZETDC substation in Glenview. Around 2am sometime in April, Mukata and his partner who is still on the run, broke into a ZESA substation in Glenview 3 and stole an armoured cable.

The police received a tip off about the theft and quickly moved in to apprehend the culprits. While Mukata was caught and arrested, his accomplice managed to escape. After a full trial, the Harare Magistrate Court sentenced him to nine years in prison.

New Ziana