A 26-year-old Zimbabwean man will spend six years in a South African jail for stealing a railway track in Pretoria.
According to that country’s media, Petros Vingirani, who was in South Africa illegally, was caught red-handed with pieces of railway track that he had stripped in October last year.
He was slapped with a lengthy prison sentence by a Pretoria regional court on Wednesday.
South Africa ‘s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Lumka Mahajana said Vingirani had pleaded guilty to the crime and to entering SA illegally.
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“On October 27 2021, at Koedoespoort campus on a functional railway line, Vingirani was found by security guards stealing locomotive bearings valued at R132,000 that belonged to Transnet.
“The guards alerted the police and he was arrested on the scene,” said Mahajana.
“Prosecutor Dru Ramsamy asked the court to impose a prescribed minimum sentence, because of the effects this type of offence had in the community.
“Money that is supposed to be spent on developing communities is instead spent on replacing damaged items and tightening security,” she added.
“Furthermore, Ramsay said, “Vingirani had no regard for the laws of the country over and above being an illegal immigrant.”
Source:Bmetro
