File
A 39-year-old Mpumalanga man has been jailed for 15 years after he was found guilty of damaging essential infrastructure for stealing cables from Transnet.
The National Prosecuting Authority said Goodwill Dlamini was sentenced recently in the Ermelo Regional Court.
NPA spokesperson, Monica Nyuswa, said Dlamini was employed as a security officer at Isidingo Security, which is contracted to Transnet.
She said he was arrested in 2021 after a Transnet investigator received a tip-off about cable theft at the Websrust substation on the Davel railway line and loaded into a vehicle belonging to the security company.
Nyuswa said during the trial, Dlamini pleaded not guilty and attempted to shift the blame to a colleague.
She said the state argued in aggravation of sentence, that Dlamini, as a security officer, had betrayed the trust placed in him and stole from his employer.
The NPA said that it would “pursue a focused approach to ensure that harsher sentences are imposed” for these types of convictions.
