| Bloemfontein Regional Court sentences Braampie to twenty years imprisonment for tampering with, and theft of property forming essential infrastructure | |
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| Date Published: | |
| 2026/05/05 | |
| Description Details: | |
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Media Statement BLOEMFONTEIN - On Tuesday, 15 November 2022, members of the Bloemfontein Flying Squad intercepted Braam Bothma (18) while moving between scrapyards in Oranjesig to find a buyer and found him in possession of presumably stolen copper cable weighing at 3.58 kilograms. Unfortunately, the copper cables were burnt and couldn't be identified. Between Wednesday, 16 April 2025 and Friday, 18 April 2025 there were incidents of tampering, damaging or destroying of essential infrastructure [Section 3(1) read with Section 1, 3(2) and 6 of the Criminal Matters Amendment Act 18 of 2015]; and theft of essential infrastructure [Section 155(2) and Section 264 of Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977] at a small holding in Hillside where 50 to 100 meters of cable with an estimated value of R10 000 was cut off and stolen. An old customer, Braam Bothma (20), was identified through CCTV footage, and Telkom confirmed that the property destroyed and stolen belonged to them. On Friday, 6 June 2025 at about 04:00, Braampie was arrested in Rotterdam Street - Noordhoek for possession of stolen CENTLEC (SOC) Ltd overhead conductor, which caused a prolonged power outage in the area. The direct impact of cable theft can result in loss of revenue; it can also have a direct health impact as many individuals in the area may rely on electrically powered medical devices such as oxygen concentrators, nebulizers, ventilators and dialysis machines. At Navalsig, the management decided to follow a particular methodology for investigation of dockets; as the station receives dockets relating to similar crime, the modus operandi is analysed to develop a profile of the possible suspect(s). A case is then built against these potential suspect(s). If similar cases are reported at neighbouring stations, the matters are linked and assigned to a single investigating officer for coordinated investigation. All dockets opened were then allocated to Sergeant Nomahlubi Letshabo. The member meticulously investigated the cases where Braam Bothma was the suspect and, finally, the Bloemfontein Regional Court found Braampie guilty and sentenced him to twenty (20) years imprisonment on two (2) counts of tampering with essential infrastructure, two (2) counts of theft of property forming essential infrastructure, and possession of stolen property.
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