A 43-year-old former cellphone tower technician has been convicted of damaging essential infrastructure and theft.
In a statement, the South African Police Service (SAPS) says Free State provincial detectives and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) welcome the hefty sentencing, noting it highlights the power of meticulous forensic fieldwork and dedicated investigation in tackling infrastructure vandalism.
According to SAPS, in April 2025, a business burglary occurred at a cellphone tower site near Rouxville. Containers belonging to major service providers, MTN and Vodacom, were forced open, and copper cables were stolen.
With no immediate eyewitnesses or suspects identified at the time, the Local Criminal Record Centre processed the crime scene, SAPS says.
It adds that authorities lifted a set of fingerprints, which ultimately became the undoing of the perpetrator.
The fingerprint analysis led investigators directly to Sello Dichaba (43), who was a contracted technician employed to service cellphone towers for both major networks.
SAPS explains that through collaboration between a tag team of investigators, warrant officer Moeketsi Mohotsi and warrant officer Krokkie Engelbrecht, working together with the NPA’s advocate Keith Muller, Dichaba was arrested and faced two counts of damage to essential infrastructure and two counts of theft from infrastructure.
He was sentenced to a combined total of 50 years imprisonment. However, the court ordered that the sentences run concurrently, meaning he will effectively serve 20 years behind bars.
The sentencing comes as South African mobile operators have, over the years, reported vandalism and theft at base stations, costing them billions of rands to replace the infrastructure.
Criminal syndicates are increasingly targeting South African mobile operators’ base stations, stealing or vandalising critical infrastructure like batteries, copper cables and diesel.
The rate of vandalism and theft, especially multiple repeat incidents, is sometimes forcing the operators to abandon base stations due to unviable replacement costs, thereby adversely impacting network availability or quality in some areas.
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