FREE STATE – The Provincial Head of the Hawks’ Free State, Major General Mokgadi Bokaba welcomed the sentencing of Tafadzwa Nhire (41) to twenty (20) years direct imprisonment for theft and tampering with essential infrastructure by the Harrismith Regional Court yesterday and commended the work of the investigation team.

Nhire was convicted yesterday, 25 May 2022 convicted for the incident that occurred on Monday, 11 May 2020 when Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team based in Bethlehem received a complaint from the master control centre of Transnet pipeline in Pinetown about the pressure drop from their pipeline. The police attended to the complaint and on their arrival, they found that the structure had been tampered with and diesel was stolen from the pipeline. On the same day, information was received about a truck that was stuck on Highway Junction, Harrismith. The team followed up on the information and upon arrival at the Highway, they found the suspect pulling two tankers with a truck.

Samples were taken from the tankers for analysis and it was discovered that the diesel was from Transnet pipeline. During the arrest police seized a truck and two tankers including 58 681 litres of diesel with an estimated value of more than R800 000-00.

Source: South African Police Service