City Power has officially begun auditing electricity meters in Alexandra to address widespread bypassing and eliminate illegal connections.

The move forms part of what the utility describes as a renewed social compact with the community to tackle network overloading, damaged infrastructure, affordability, and ongoing service interruptions.

Read more: City clears waste in Alexandra amid Pikitup disruptions

Beyond improving supply reliability, the process is expected to help the utility recover lost revenue. Of roughly 40 959 customers in Alexandra, only about 2 382 actively purchase electricity.

Imbizo commitments prompt network normalisation

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena confirmed that the meter auditing follows a recent Imbizo, where the utility committed to beginning a normalisation process. He said that process starts with audits designed to establish exactly how many households City Power needs to service.

The audits will determine how many residents are legitimately purchasing electricity, how many are not, and how many meters have been illegally bypassed.

Mangena said in Ward 76, City Power has roughly 10 500 customers, but only about 300 buy electricity.

“The rest are freeloading, so you can see it is less than 3% of the residents in this ward alone that are basically buying electricity,” he said.

Also read: City Power responds to infrastructure theft and vandalism in Alex

Ward 76 is among several wards that have long posed compliance challenges for City Power and placed significant financial pressure on the utility. Mangena said the ward has cost City Power heavily this year, with numerous transformers damaged and requiring replacement since January.

He said onboarding customers and getting them to pay for what they consume is essential to easing that burden.

“They need to start contributing towards revenue, towards maintenance costs, [and] buying of the materials that they need to basically service them,” he said.

Penalty fee waived in favour of commitment deposit

Mangena said under normal circumstances, residents found to have bypassed their meters are liable, by law, for a penalty of around R14 000, but that will not apply during this exercise.

Also read: Resident accuses City Power of using blackouts to force payment

“We are not going to make any resident pay any fee. We want to start on a clean slate with the residents. We want to basically say we are coming here in peace to make sure that we do things right. One of the right things we want to do is to make sure that the network itself is cleaned up,” he said.

Instead, City Power is asking for a R500 commitment payment from customers, which will be credited to the new meter once installed.

City Power previously revealed that the R500 fee forms part of a company-wide approach applied in areas undergoing normalisation. Of that amount, R210 goes towards monthly service-related charges, while the balance is credited back to the customer’s meter in the form of units once the normalisation process is complete.

Mangena said the R500 is a once-off payment, intended to demonstrate a customer’s commitment to buying electricity going forward.

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