Matsiloje police have rounded up five of the six men suspected to have stolen a Botswana Telecommunication Corporation (BTC) aerial cable in the village.
The copper-heavy cable, valued at P329,385 and used for transmitting power, was taken from Bogare ward on 29th January, plunging much of the area into darkness.
The suspects, three Zimbabweans: Sipho Gumbo, 38; Sherperd Ngwenya, 22; Thato Ngwenya, 35; and two local men: Simane Lungisani, 35; and Moemedi Choto, 28; were arrested at different dates, with a sixth man still on the run.
Appearing before Francistown Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, all five protested their innocence, insisting the theft of the still-to-be-found cable was nothing to do with them.
With the foreign trio found to be in Botswana illegally, they were deemed a flight risk and remanded in custody. Lungisani and Choto’s citizen status couldn’t save them from jail either, suffering the same fate.
The quintet return to court on 22nd February for facts reading and fingerprinting. Meanwhile, the cops are busy scouring scrap yards in the area as they hunt for the missing cable.
