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Freedom Mupanedemo Midlands Bureau
Gweru State House, the Zimbabwe Military Academy (ZMA) and Senga Police Station in Gweru were plunged into darkness after copper cable thieves pounced on the institutions on separate occasions and got away with power cables, an official has confirmed.

The copper thieves have been taking advantage of the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC)’s power cuts to steal power cables from police stations and other security institutions.
ZETDC southern region boss Dr King Dube, who confirmed the development, said copper cable thieves were now on the prowl and were targeting critical institutions.

“We have been battling copper cable thieves of late and what is surprising is that they are targeting critical institutions.
“Imagine stealing copper cables at a police station (Senga Police Station) and the ZMA. They are so daring and we are also puzzled about the motive behind these acts,” he said.

Dr Dube said the copper cable thieves also vandalised an electricity line supplying power to the Gweru Airforce and Josiah Tungamirai Air Base. “Right now we are working on restoring power to these institutions. The better part of Senga suburb is in the dark following the theft of copper cables. We also have the same problem in Ascot where thieves also vandalised ZETDC property and stole copper cables, it’s just overwhelming,” he said.

Dr Dube said all the theft cases were reported to the police, but no arrests have been made yet.
“We haven’t received any updates from the police, but it is our hope that these criminals will one day be brought to book,” he said.

He said the power utility was working on a project to replace the copper cables with aluminium conductors.
“The projects cannot be done overnight because they require a lot of funding. They have to be done in phases. The other challenge is that the aluminium is also in short supply, so this is slowing the phasing out of copper cables which are being targeted by thieves.”