Ezinyoka terrorises Mphephu residents

The police at Mphephu are urging members of the community to work with them in the fight against cable theft in the area.

This comes after a group of thieves, also called ezinyoka, have been terrorising Tshirolwe Extension and the surrounding villages by stealing the electricity cables. According to the villagers, the theft of the cables is one of the reasons for the poor service delivery in the area. It appears as if ezinyoka do not just cut any cable, but they target the long ones, from the houses to the poles.

“I woke up very early in the morning and switched on the light, but there was no power,” said Mrs Martha Makhavhu. She told Limpopo Mirror that she only realized that the cable had been cut off when she went out of her house. “I hardly could believe my eyes and I kept on looking around, thinking I would see the cables, but they were no more,” she said.

At this stage, several people are guarding these electrical installations at night. Others are keeping the lights or a radio on as a warning system if anything goes wrong.

The police are appealing to members of the community to come forward and furnish them with information that can bring the culprits to book. Cllr Mbulaeni Magada said the cable theft hurt the economy as the supply of essential services such as water, electricity and telecommunication networks became disrupted unnecessarily. She said although Eskom had embarked on an intensive drive to educate users about the dangers of cable theft, the criminals were not deterred at all.

Date:22 April 2015

By: Kaizer Nengovhela

Kaizer Nengovhela started writing stories for Limpopo Mirror in 2000. Prior to that he had a five year stint at Phala-Phala FM as sports presenter. In 2005 Kaizer received an award from the province's premier as Best Sports Presenter. The same year he was also nominated as Best Sports Reporter by the Makhado Municipality. Kaizer was awarded the Mathatha Tsedu award in 2014.

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