South Africa’s Hawks have arrested an alleged kingpin of a fuel theft syndicate in Pretoria.
The team arrested two men on Saturday while in possession of a tanker fuel of allegedly stolen fuel. Law enforcement charged the two with theft of fuel and tampering with Transnet’s pipeline at Vrede, in Free State. They were arrested in Kromdraai, Witbank, around 200 km away.
A multi-disciplinary team then arrested the supposed kingpin today. The team was made up of the Free State Hawks Serious Organised Crime Investigation, with private security company Bidvest Protea Coin Security and the Gauteng Traffic Department Saturation Unit
Hawks representative Lieutenant Colonel Philani Nkwalase said the two men arrested on Saturday would return to court on October 24.
Nkwalase said the arresting team included officials from the state, in addition to private security operations such as Badboyz Security and the South African Revenue Service (SARS).
The alleged kingpin – who was not named – will appear in the Witbank Magistrates court tomorrow. The authorities will then transport him to Vrede with the other suspects.
Nkwalase said thieves had stolen nearly 8.5 million litres of fuel from Transnet pipelines in the last year.
The authorities’ “multi-disciplinary approach” has been successful, the official said. “With the additional three linked to this incident, we are sitting at total of 49 suspects arrested in the country,” he said.
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A report from investigative journalists amaBhungane in March highlighted Vrede’s role in the theft. The town was the “nexus for sophisticated criminal networks” stealing fuel from buried pipelines owned by Transnet, it said.
Vrede is a midpoint for the pipeline network which runs from Johannesburg to Durban.
There have been allegations that thieves may have some degree of support from local police and Transnet workers.
Fuel theft has sometimes led to environmental disasters. Transnet blamed a fuel spill in 2020, which polluted a river, on thieves.