City of Cape Town Law Enforcement’s Wayne Dyason says shortly after 8am they were contacted by the motorist who saw the two men digging trenches.
The motorist, he says, was travelling along the R300 highway at the time.
“The motorist called us because he believed they were up to something, so we activated the Metal Theft Unit and two officers were sent to the site.”
On arrival, officers saw the two men and found that they had been digging for electricity cables.
“They had dug up the entire area to find the cables and the officers confiscated a pair of rubber gloves, a spade used to dig the trenches, a sharp hand blade and about six metres of electric cables.”
Dyason says the cables are usually burnt to get to the copper wires in the core of the cables to sell.
“This is happening all across the city. They go to spots like this in the dead of the night and go and dig up an entire area for those cables. They usually burn it to get to the copper wires which they sell.”
The two suspects were detained at Bellville South Police Station and will appear in court on a charge of cable theft once charged.