Three people have been arrested for stealing Prasa cables and melting them at an illegal melting factory in Heidelberg. A Prasa technician is among those arrested at the facility. Officials have also recovered equipment worth millions. The transport minister visited the location on Sunday.
The notorious Heidelberg house where three have been arrested for allegedly running an illegal melting factory contained equipment stolen from Prasa worth more than R2.6-million. The recovered Prasa equipment has since been moved to a warehouse. Prasa administrator, Bongisiwe Mpondo said, “we found an operation, almost like a smelter, where they take the copper, put it in a furnace that they’ve developed and that then gets developed into blocks that then get exported
The melted blocks don’t come cheap. According to Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula, a single block is worth tens of thousands of rands when sold on the black market. Mbalula called the theft “economic sabotage”.
“The law must speak to this. The prosecutors must charge these people with economic sabotage and they must be brought to book for years in jail. We arrest them, 400 arrests in Cape Town, all of them get out on fines. And these are repetitive criminals,” he stated. While the minister admitted Prasa is a broken organisation, Mbalula says his department is working hard to rid the rail agency of the network of criminals within.
I’m attending this Court Case tomorrow morning.
On Friday night, four suspects were detained by PRASA security for the burning of trains late last year at the Braamfontein Train Yard.
The Suspects will appear at Westgate Magistrate court on Monday at 9AM. https://t.co/VdDbYGUodY
— Minister of Transport |Mr Fix (@MbalulaFikile) February 9, 2020
In other news – Trevor Noah’s mother Patricia feels abandoned by her Son
Patricia feels abandoned by her son. The mother learns from media about the visit. Patricia Noah has apparently cited the silence between her and her son, stating that they do not communicate often.
As South Africa raves about multi-award-winning comedian and international star Trevor Noah’s involvement in the charitable tennis match between champions Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, along with billionaire Bill Gates, his mother Patricia learned of his arrival in South Africa from the media. Read more
Source: eNCA