A man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for stealing Telkom cellphone tower batteries worth R36,000 in Bloemfontein. Tinos Ndebele was found guilty of tampering with essential infrastructure and theft from essential infrastructure after an alarm was triggered at a Telkom cellphone tower in Roodewal.
Telkom officials discovered damaged fencing, a broken container, and missing batteries worth R36,000. Police found Ndebele’s fingerprints at the crime scene, but he claimed to be a snake catcher chasing a king cobra into the container on the day of the theft.
The prosecutor argued for the maximum sentence due to the increasing tampering with essential infrastructure, resulting in Ndebele receiving 20 years for tampering and 15 years for theft. The court ordered part of the theft sentence to run concurrently with the tampering sentence.
TimesLIVE