By Zavela Makwabe
When two young thieves stole just 12 metres of copper from Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in Mdantsane last week, they could not have known the chaos they would set in motion.
The theft caused multiple power cuts at the hospital, putting many of its seriously ill patients in perilous danger.
Seriously ill people need ventilators to stay alive. Many frail newborn infants depend on machines powered by electricity to keep their hearts beating.
So when security guards heard an explosion outside the hospital on Tuesday, they raced to the scene and saw two men jumping the fence, copper cables draped around their necks,
This was the second time in less than a week that the hospital’s electricity had been tampered with. The previous Friday power was out for hours – and it wasn’t due to load shedding.
This time an angry Mdantsane community took to the streets. They identified the culprits after seeing a video on social media of two men boasting about taking cables from a hospital.
It didn’t take them long to apprehend the suspects. The mob attacked both of the suspects with one said to be in hospital. He remains under police guard until he is well enough to be arrested.
At the heart of this tragedy is a scrapyard owner, according to the angry community that beat “the truth” out of the two alleged cable thieves.
The woman who runs the scrapyard was apparently in the market for stolen cables, and so she became the mob’s next target.
Over the weekend, community members tried to burn down her home. Police intervened in the nick of time and arrested the woman for purchasing stolen scrap metal.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Thembinkosi Kinana confirmed that hospital guards saw two youths jumping over the hospital fence after “a big explosion” at the Mdantsane hospital last Tuesday.
Tools, including a pick handle and a spade, were spotted on the scene, and about 12 metres of cable was missing.
He said shortly after an employee of the hospital opened a case on Thursday, police received information that members of the local “community forum” had arrested two youths suspected of cable theft.
Members of the forum were also preparing to set a house alight, but police were sent to the address and the house was saved
He said the police were now investigating a case of damage to infrastructure and theft of electric cables.
At a meeting held on Sunday, the community resolved to close down all scrap yards in the Mdantsane area to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy.
Pictured above: The two suspects shortly after being apprehended by the mob
Image source: Facebook
