An alleged repeat offender and notorious cable thief in the Theescombe, Gqeberha, area was detained for a ninth time by members of private security firm Tac Net, with an accomplice. (Photo: Riaan Marais) 
A tip-off about an alleged serial thief led to the offices of private security firm Tac Net, whose operators conduct constant patrols in Theescombe and among the smallholdings on the outskirts of Gqeberha.
Since 2018, they have been tracking the movements of a suspect known for his alleged involvement in cable theft, burglaries and other petty crimes.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Kawasaki-1.jpg "About 6kg of copper cable belonging to Telkom was recovered when a pair of alleged thieves was apprehended in Nelson Mandela Bay. (Photo: Riaan Marais)")
Tac Net members have picked him up at least eight times and handed him over to the police, but within days rumours would circulate that he was on the loose again, doing casual work on farms or allegedly up to no good.
In an office at Tac Net’s headquarters in Walmer on Monday, the firm’s owner, Abri Pienaar, was outlining some of the encounters his employees have had with the notorious “Kawasaki” when an operative walked in and handed him a phone.
Pienaar stared at the phone, a look of disbelief on his face. “It’s him again. It’s Kawasaki,” he said, slamming his open palm into the desk.
He immediately dispatched additional units to the scene and notified the Walmer police station. “He first came on to our radar in 2018, and since then he has been a thorn in the side of the community.”
According to Pienaar, his staff have detained the 23-year-old eight times. His alleged crimes included theft, possession of stolen property, burglary and damage to infrastructure.
“The problem is that many people in the area know him. He works for some of them and gains access to their properties. Shortly thereafter, some of these properties are targeted by thieves.
“But when we catch him, sometimes in possession of stolen items, the victims don’t open cases. Some of them are just happy to have their property back, while copper cables belong to the municipality, and they never send someone out to open a case.
“Within hours, he is released back on to the street,” Pienaar said. Law enforcement agencies have apprehended other suspects in the area who, according to Pienaar, have named Kawasaki as their accomplice, but they could establish no direct link.
Despite having his real name, address and a list of family contacts, the police have never managed to positively link him to anything. That was until Monday, when he was allegedly apprehended with 6kg of copper cables belonging to Telkom.
On arrival at the scene on Old Seaview Road, Kawasaki and another man sat on the roadside, handcuffed together, under the watchful eye of private security officials. Next to them was a bag containing a bundle of rolled-up copper wires.
Just down the road, Tac Net members also found pieces of black rubber insulation similar to that normally wrapped around electrical wires. The insulation had been cut open and left on the side of the road, the copper wire removed.
An official from Telkom, who did not want to be named, also arrived at the scene and identified the contents of the bag found with the suspects as copper wire used in telephone lines belonging to his employer. He placed the wire in a black plastic bag before weighing it.
While he could not put a value on the 6kg of copper, he confirmed that a significant length of telephone wire had to be stripped for the suspects to extract that weight.
Copper wire theft and vandalism in Nelson Mandela Bay have become so rampant that in June this year, the municipality announced that it would brand its electrical cables.
Read more: Nelson Mandela Bay metro will brand electrical cables in bid to foil rampant theft
Meanwhile, Transnet said earlier this year that it was considering replacing cabling for its train signalling systems with remote satellite technology due to escalating copper cable theft nationally.
Read more: Transnet is looking at satellite technology to end copper cable theft
On Monday’s incident with Kawasaki, police spokesperson Captain André Beetge confirmed that two suspects, aged 23 and 24, had been brought to the Walmer police station. A case of possession of stolen goods had been reported and was under investigation.
With regard to Kawasaki’s previous run-ins with the law, Beetge said he could not confirm whether the suspect had any pending cases.
“If there are no complainants to report a matter, then no case is opened and no official investigation takes place. Even if a suspect is detained [by] the police, they cannot be held indefinitely if no case is reported,” Beetge said.
The two suspects are scheduled to appear in the Gqeberha Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday. DM