Two thieves who were caught along the N3 going to Johannesburg by Villiers police in the Free State for possession of cellphone tower batteries belonging to Vodacom have been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The Villiers Regional Court sentenced Welile Matshule Ndlovu, 48, and Optimus Moment Tshuma, 30, to 12 years’ direct imprisonment each for the theft of cellphone tower batteries.
This follows after police received a tip-off that there is a Toyota Hilux that is driving to the N3 with suspected stolen goods, and they stopped the vehicle on the N3, with three occupants and asked to search it.
They were granted permission to search, and they found 16 Vodacom cellphone tower batteries and arrested all three occupants because they could not give a proper explanation why they were in possession of the batteries.
"Ten tower batteries were found to have been stolen in KwaZulu Natal as they still had serial numbers, and the accused are facing charges in relation to those batteries in KZN," NPA regional spokesperson, Phaladi Shuping said.
"They were only charged for theft of six tower batteries as the serial numbers were filed off.
"All three accused were released on bail, but the third accused, Bongani Ndlovu, 26, failed to come to court, and he is still at large," Shuping said.
In their attempt to evade justice, during the trial, Ndlovu and Nshuma told the court that they do not know anything about stolen cellphone tower batteries as they were only given a lift by Ndlovu.
"They said Bongani asked Welile to drive the vehicle because he was tired," Shuping said.
The State Prosecutor, Mphakamise Teki, requested the investigating officer, Warrant Officer Neels Du Rand, to investigate the cellphone data of the accused, and it revealed that all three accused travelled together from Johannesburg until their arrest in Villiers.
Teki requested the court reject the version of the accused because they just want to pin the theft on Bongani because he was not in court.
"The accused failed to inform the police, at the time they were arrested and even at the time they were charged, that they did not know anything about the cellphone tower batteries, and now that Bongani is not here, they want to pin the theft on him.
"The court must reject their version as improbable and not possibly true and sentence them to a direct term of imprisonment because cellphone tower batteries are essential infrastructure and their theft has a negative impact on the economy," Teki said.
Shuping added that Magistrate Amos Moos concurred with the prosecutor and sentenced Ndlovu and Nshuma to 12 years of effective imprisonment each.
IOL