30 YEARS IMPRISONMENT FOR TEMPERING WITH ESSENTIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
The Bloemfontein Regional Court has sentenced Tinos Ndebele, to 30 years of direct imprisonment after he was convicted on charges of tampering with essential infrastructure as well as theft from essential infrastructure. On 8 June 2023, an alarm was triggered at a Telkom Cellphone Tower in Roodewal. Telkom officials went out to the scene. When they arrived at the tower, they found fencing to the tower damaged and found a container broken and the door forced open. Inside the container, 12 batteries amounting to R36 000 were stolen.
A police forensic team was called to the scene and fingerprints were lifted from the crime scene. The fingerprints lifted matched those of the accused. Through diligent police investigations, the accused was traced and arrested. In his defence during the trial, the accused gave a version that he was a snake catcher and on the said date he was chasing a King Cobra, the snake went into the container, thus explaining his Fingerprints found at the crime scene. Regional Court Prosecutor Petro van den Berg argued that the court should sentence the accused to the maximum sentence for this criminality, as tampering with essential infrastructure offences was on the increase and was harming the economy, lives of the citizenry, and affecting the running of the country.
In sentencing, the court rejected the version of the accused and the court found him guilty of tampering with essential infrastructure and theft from infrastructure. The accused was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on a charge of tampering with infrastructure and 15 years imprisonment on a charge of theft from infrastructure. The court ordered that 5 years of count 2(theft from infrastructure) to run concurrently with count 1 thus the accused was effectively sentenced to 30 years of direct imprisonment.
The National Prosecuting Authority will continue to prioritise the prosecution of crime and criminals that disproportionately undermine South Africans’ safety, the country’s socio-economic well-being, the functioning of the economy of the country, compromise the well-being of the citizenry, and the rule of law.
