Mlotha Nelson Usale operated a syndicate that would steal batteries from MTN and Vodacom cellphone towers, rebrand them and sell them on social media. Picture: Timothy Bernard/Independent Media
A Malawian pastor who spent a year orchestrating the thefts of batteries from Vodacom and MTN cellphone towers around the country, will spend the next decade behind bars.
Mlotha Nelson Usale was found guilty of running a syndicate that stole batteries from Vodacom and MTN towers between 2021 and 2022.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Lumka Mahanjana, said the 59-year-old pastor at God's Chapel Church, would interchange the e-battery management system of batteries to different manufacturers, respray the casings of the battery in an attempt to disguise the true origins of the batteries to make it look like they were commercial solar batteries.
He would then sell the batteries on social media under a business called Solar Mart and Sun Shop.
"When an unsuspecting customer purchases a battery, the company would use the services of e-hailing to deliver the battery," she said.
The pastor's racket was exposed when a battery was bought and the buyer complained that it did not work.
Mahanjana said the complainant told his friend who informed him that it was a cellphone network battery.
"The complainant then reported the matter to the police, who in return set a trap which resulted in the arrest of two other Malawian nationals in May last year. They have since been convicted and began their eight-year prison sentence in July last year.
The men showed police to a storage facility in Midrand where the batteries were kept; here police recovered 53 batteries.
"Thereafter the two took the police to the places where they sold the batteries. After the arrest of the two, a warrant of arrest was issued for Usale, however, he skipped the country and returned to Malawi. He was eventually arrested in January this year at the Beitbridge border, attempting to skip the country again," Mahanjana said.
Usale pleaded guilty to the charges and offered to pay a fine of R200,000 however, State prosecutor Advocate Tholoana Sekhonyana, refused the offer and argued that the offences committed warranted a sentence of direct imprisonment.
Sekhonyana added that the theft cost cellphone providers as they had been confiscated by police.
Mahanjana said when handing down the sentence, Magistrate Chulu agreed with the state that the money used to replace the batteries and fix the damage was substantial and the complainants lost a lot of money.
"Furthermore, the magistrate said Usale wanted to escape prison and lacked consideration for the victims the fact that he asked to pay a fine and not reimburse the victims.
The magistrate added that “Usale had abused his welcome in South Africa”.
She explained that Usale was sentenced to 10 years direct imprisonment for tampering with essential infrastructure and eight years each on three counts of fraud worth R150, 000. The court ordered the sentences should run concurrently with that of ten years.
Usale was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
The NPA has welcomed the sentenced with Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Sibongile Mzinyathi applauding the investigating officers involved in the conviction; Sergeants Thabo Lukhele and Mokibelo Supe of the Gauteng Provincial Organised Crime.
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