City Power prioritises Setswetla for vending compliance audit
Non-compliant residents could face disconnections and penalties as City Power targets Setswetla Informal Settlement for full vending compliance audit.
City Power says it has formally prioritised Setswetla Informal Settlement for a full vending compliance audit.
This comes amid complaints by residents that the power utility has not replaced a transformer in the area that sustained damage in May this year.
Read more: Setswetla residents demand fair rollout of City Power meters
The utility has expressed concerns about the scourge of unauthorised connections, meter bypassing, and vandalism in the area, stressing that these—specifically illegal connections—overload the infrastructure beyond its capacity to handle. This, according to the utility, causes frequent outages, equipment failures, and increased operational costs.
“City Power will be deploying a dedicated team from the Alexandra Service Delivery Centre to conduct extensive meter audits and normalisation in Setswetla,” the utility’s spokesperson, Isaac Mangena said.
Mangena warned that customers found to have bypassed meters, stolen electricity, or tampered with the utility’s infrastructure will be converted to postpaid. This will allow City Power to enforce debt recovery and remove the benefits of prepaid supply.
“Non‑compliant customers will face disconnections, financial penalties and will no longer enjoy the benefits associated with prepaid systems.”
Also read: Damaged transformer leaves Setswetla residents relying on illegal connections
Mangena said if residents in Setswetla want power supply, they must pay for it.
While some residents argued that they should not be expected to purchase electricity while other households remain unnormalised, Mangena said the utility will not hesitate to disconnect them.
“This is a common excuse used by customers who do not want to pay for electricity. They would usually say, ‘before you normalise our households, go and start in a particular section.’ This is unacceptable and may lead to the entire area getting switched off.”
As the utility plans to carry out the full vending compliance audit in the area, it said at least 80% of customers need to be vending to keep the lights on.
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