/ 3 May 2000

MOZ COPS FOIL SMELTER

MOZAMBIQUE police arrested four people who allegedly stole about 8,5km of electric cables that feed power to the Mozal smelter south-west of Maputo. The cables were stolen last week and not all of them have been recovered, Maputo provincial police spokesperson, Joao Machava said on Wednesday. He said that police seized some highly sophisticated equipment used during the theft. Police are still searching for a woman who allegedly commissioned the theft so she could melt down the aluminium cables for raw material in her pot-making home-industry.