A former police officer, his wife who is a former employee of Eskom, a municipal official from Elim and another former Eskom employee appeared in the Bredasdorp Magistrates’ Court last week in connection with the theft of Eskom cables to the value of more than R300 000.
The Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team from Bellville, Cape Town, together with Crime Intelligence Winelands Cluster, Gansbaai and Struisbaai detectives, Eskom and Combined Private Investigation officials, swooped on the Overberg on Wednesday 27 July to execute a warrant for the four suspects’ arrest.
Zinzi Hani, spokesperson for the Hawks, confirmed Carlo Cloete (50), Percival Olckers (44), Kay-Ann Olckers (42) and Inge Fortuin (41) were arrested for allegedly stealing copper cables worth about R306 065 in the Bredasdorp area.
This followed authorities’ seizure of copper cables weighing 840 kg and 624 kg, respectively, in November 2021, acting on information received.
The copper cables, said Hani, were found in the possession of Kay-Ann Olckers, an ex-employee of Eskom, who was a senior supervisor in charge of the Bredasdorp Customer Network Centre.
“Her husband (Percival), an ex-police officer, is an accomplice in the matter,” she said.
Sources say the husband reportedly resigned from the police service after winning a large amount of money in the lottery.
Sources say Cloete, a municipal official, allegedly supplied the former police officer with fraudulent documents enabling him to sell the cables to a local scrapyard.
Said Hani: “Preliminary investigation by the Hawks revealed the copper cable was stolen from the Eskom Customer Network Centre in Bredasdorp, which was confirmed by Eskom.
“Further investigation revealed the suspects had started selling the stolen copper cables to the local scrap yard in April 2021.”
The suspects appeared in the Bredasdorp Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 28 July on charges of fraud and theft.
Cloete, Fortuin and Percivale and Kay-Ann Olckers were to remain in custody until their formal bail application, which has been scheduled for Wednesday 10 August.