A skelm, who stole six street poles in Manenberg, has made his first appearance in Athlone Magistrates’ Court today.
Cops on patrol in Sherwood Park spotted the brazen skelm making his way to a local scrapyard on Friday morning, pushing a wheelie bin full of poles.
SAPS’ Sanele Zama, says: “As they patrolled Sherwood Park doing stop and searches, they saw the lone male pushing a wheelie bin with protruding objects.
“They stopped the 21-year-old and on closer inspection found six six-metre electric light poles in the wheelie.
“He could not give an account of where or how he got the poles.
“It seems as if the poles were street light poles that have been removed within the area.”
Zama says the skelm was charged with possession of suspected stolen property.
“The investigation into the thefts continues but we remind the public that the destruction of infrastructure is a criminal offence and impacts the community negatively.”
Ward Councillor Bonita Jacobs says public infrastructure in Manenberg has come under siege by skelms.
“They started stealing the electrical cables causing blackouts across Manenberg, stealing the cables of the street poles,” she says.
“In some cases, there are areas in darkness for up to three weeks as the City workers can’t keep up with the repairs.
“It's shocking to see they are even stealing the poles now for scrap metal and they must have power tools or work in groups to get this right.”
Jacobs says in some cases the skelms just wait for repairs to be done before hitting again: “They go right back and steal again.
“It is heartbreaking to see people destroying their own community.”
Anyone with information regarding illegal stolen property can contact Manenberg Police on 021 699 9400.