PRETORIA – Three alleged fraudsters accused of selling Eskom prepaid electricity vouchers have been arrested by the Mpumalanga Hawk’s Serious Organised Crime Investigation on Thursday, 22 October 2020.
The trio which includes a male and two females were nabbed following a clampdown operation in Middelburg and surrounding areas for the illegal sale of electricity to locals.
Kwamhlanga Local Criminal Record Centre and Eskom forensics formed part of multi-disciplinary teamwork aimed at putting an end to what is evidently a disturbing trend in parts of Mpumalanga.
This intensive investigation commenced in 2019, through an Investigative Project dubbed ‘MAHALA’ after a whistleblower alerted the authorities to the syndicate’s unlawful dealings.
The investigators established that the group was dispensing prepaid electricity vouchers using unauthorized vending machines at a very low price.
The team went undercover and monitored transactions with the unsuspecting targets thereby building a watertight case against them.
Some of the items confiscated during the arrests include diaries with the lists of clients, meter numbers of clients who appear to be prepared to buy from the suspects instead of legitimate places of sale, and various electronic equipment.
The three suspects aged 36, 38, and 46 are to face charges of theft and possession of the suspected stolen property when they appear in Tweefontein and Siyabuswa Magistrate’s Courts today, 23 October 2020.
The National Head of the Hawks Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya has welcomed the arrests and urged the community to stop buying electricity from criminals as this is promoting criminality and negatively affecting Eskom to deliver much-needed power.
