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The bucket suspected to be full of stolen copper cables. Photo supplied.

Bus driver delivers suspected thief straight to the police

 

A bus driver showed his bravery when he drove a suspected copper cable thief straight to the police station on Saturday.

Mr Moses Maluleke's bus operates between the Elim area and Louis Trichardt. When he stopped at Magangeni village, he saw a man struggling with a 20-litre white bucket and a big bag climb into the bus. He kept a watchful eye on him.

“I was curious about the manner in which he kept looking around him, as if he was carrying stolen propertiy,” Maluleke said. “When we got to Louis Trichardt, he requested to get off in the industrial area. I asked if I could be of help by driving him to the place where he intended to get off, but he refused. I asked him to let me see the contents of his luggage, but he just kept quiet.”

Maluleke then came over and opened one of the bags and saw stripped copper wires. He was shocked to see such huge rolls of cable. “I demanded to know where he was taking them, and he just kept quiet,” he said. “It was only then that I ordered him to get back into the bus.”

The suspected thief got a rude awakening when the bus driver halted in front of the Louis Trichardt Police Station. “I explained to the police how I had found the man, and that I suspected him to be carrying copper wires that might have been stolen somewhere in or around Magangeni village,” Maluleke said.

The bus driver told Limpopo Mirror he was worried about the theft of electricity cables, which thieves then sold at local scrapyards for quick cash. He indicated that thieves had cut off the electricity cable to his home to sell at a scrapyard some years ago.

“I had to spend more than two months without electricity because I had to buy a cable and pay for the replacement service,” he said. “I wake up each morning and go to work. So, it was so difficult when I had to go back to using wood to boil water, candles for lighting in the house, and eating a cold supper in the evening just because a heartless person or people had stolen our cable.”

The provincial police's spokesperson, Col Moatshe Ngoepe, confirmed the matter and said that the suspect had been identified as Rhulani Nkuna, who was also a resident at Magangeni village. “Nkuna was found in possession of copper wires and he couldn't explain the origin of the copper wires. He was arrested on the spot for possession of suspected stolen property.”

A brave bus driver, Mr Moses Maluleke, drove the suspected cable thief straight to the police station in a bid to fight crime.

 

Date:17 September 2018

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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