Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s publicly owned Electricity Company, EDM, has recorded financial losses amounting to 10 million meticais (about 158,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate), caused by theft and vandalism of power transmission equipment in the northern province of Nampula.
The loss, covering the period between January and now, was disclosed on Tuesday by the representative of the EDM director in Nampula, Isalde Guerreiro, when the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) presented an individual under arrest for the sale of electricity cables on the informal market.
“We had financial losses of over 10 million meticais since the start of the year,” Guerreiro added. He said that outlying suburbs of the city, such as Namicopo, Carrupeia and Murrapaniua, were the places where cable thefts and vandalism of voltage transformer stations are often recorded.
The SERNIC Nampula spokesperson, Enina Tsinine, said that recurring robberies of EDM electric material also involve the company’s staff.
“There is a case we have been tracking for some time and it is a crime which has been continually committed. Though we have found different people, there is always an involvement of EDM staff and we called on EDM to strengthen this weakness and be very cautious with those who keep the material in warehouses,” she said.
The arrested individual has admitted stealing the material. He claimed to have been an EDM seasonal employee at the power station in Nampula city and received, in August, from the company’s senior staff, an unspecified quantity of electric cables for sale.
“Last month, they withdrew the cables from the warehouses and loaded them into a company vehicle and delivered them at the place agreed with the buyer. The cables cost 50 meticais a metre. I have been here since Thursday and they left me all alone with the stolen product,” said the detainee.
Guerreiro denied the accusations made by the suspect but acknowledged that some EDM staff have been involved in the recurrent robberies. He added that the company has been undertaking awareness drives within the communities in which they urge members of the public to blow the whistle on any suspected case of theft.
Watch the Miramar report.
