Hospital lights up as copper thief checks in 

Source: Hospital lights up as copper thief checks in – herald

You Can’t Make This Up

IF irony ever needed a face, it would look a lot like Gift Mawodza, a 41-year-old man from Kakomwe village who tried to vandalise a transformer and steal copper cables near All Souls Mission Hospital, only to end up admitted to the very same health institution he nearly plunged into darkness.

On November 2, Gift and his partners in poor judgement — Simbarashe Tungamirai and Paiben Muparo — crept up to a Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) transformer under the cover of night, hoping to make off with some copper cables.

However, as Gift reached for his prize, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)’s finest volts struck right back, sending him into an involuntary breakdance.

His “friends” proved to be true comrades — they ran faster than electricity itself, leaving him sizzling on the ground.

And here is where the irony really manifests itself: The man who tried to deprive the hospital of power is now plugged in at that very hospital, recovering under police guard — with lights powered by the same transformer he tried to vandalise.

Talk about being shocked back to your senses.

Police spokesperson Detective Inspector Rachel Muteweri confirmed the bizarre twist, saying officers were tipped off about his condition.

She warned that vandalism of public utility equipment attracts a mandatory 10-year jail term — a sentence far longer than any hospital stay.

Gift is now facing charges under the Electricity Act, but one imagines his next community lecture could be titled “How not to steal from a transformer – Lessons learned the hard way”.

For single-handedly short-circuiting his own heist and becoming a patient of his own crime scene, Gift Mawodza is our Mampara of the Week; a man truly currently paying for his mistakes.