Another suspected member of a copper cable syndicate died after being electrocuted while he was apparently trying to cut cables from a high voltage power line – in this case at Bloemfontein’s Bayswater suburb.
Residents in the area woke up on the morning of Friday, 3 November, to a harrowing scene at the discovery of a badly burnt body stuck high among the overhanging power lines.
The Bloemfontein police have opened an inquest docket for an investigation to try and put the pieces of the puzzle together, and to reconstruct how the man succeeded in climbing up the 5 m high poles at night.
Upon closer inspection, the victim was found to be wearing a blue overall in addition to black overall pants.
Lt. Col Thabo Covane, spokesperson for the police in Mangaung, said police members who attended to the scene next to the R700 Road near the Oubos Estate at about 05:50, found the man hanging on the power lines.
“The paramedics declared the male dead at the scene. He had burn wounds all over his body,” said Covane.
He said the personnel from the Mangaung Metro Fire Brigade and Centlec brought the body down.
Lele Mamatu, spokesperson for Centlec, confirmed that it was not one of their workers.
- Anyone with information that can help the police to identify the unknown body, is requested to contact Capt. Kelaotswe Lebodi on 082-301-6171. Alternatively the information can be submitted on the My SAPS app, or dial the SAPS Crime Stop number: 08600-10111. In an unrelated incident, three suspected members of a copper cable syndicate suffered a similar fate of electrocution on 15 October.
Apparently, the trio were trying to harvest copper cables at the abandoned Bloemfontein Taxi Rank. Officials were made aware of their presence after a transformer in the Bloemfontein CBD exploded.
One of the suspects, identified as Thabiso Elson (31), died days after the incident, while the surviving pair are undergoing treatment for severe burn wounds at the Pelonomi Regional Hospital.
