Crime, electricity theft kill off critical businesses in Joburg

Rising crime and illegal electricity connections around a hijacked building in Jeppestown, Johannesburg, are driving businesses to closure as the area’s descent into chaos over recent months, has led to hundreds of thousands of Rands in lost income for businesses.

Two business owners on Suburban Road near an infamously violence-ridden men’s hostel are throwing in the towel after several years of urging the city and the police to hear their plight.

While the dire surroundings have always led to trouble at various establishments, recent and frequent power cuts, business robberies, and daily mugging of workers have led to businesses losing hundreds of thousands in revenue and penalties from their clients.

The area has historically attracted establishments in the business of making and fixing mechanical components.

Paul Affleck* is in the business of making, among other things, components for ventilators, an essential product during the current Covid-19 reality. He has, however, had to leave a client, a manufacturer of ventilators, high and dry last month, after several weeks without power meant he could not work. After 12 years established in the area, his business is starting to take a knock.

“We manufacture little parts for ventilators for some clients and for most of 6 weeks,we haven’t been able to,” says Affleck.

“About two weeks ago one of my customers phones me to say his customer was charging him an R8500 penalty per day and that went on for two weeks, so you do the math. We do have power now but the power has been tripping. We have to go to the transformer box because we have to switch on the power.”

Right after he has said this, he informs The Citizen, rather exasperated, that the power has gone off again.

Chaos in the infamously dangerous industrial block in Jeppestown has worsened during the lockdown, as it appears a makeshift taxi rank now occupies half of the road. Children roam the streets, presumably coming from the newly hijacked building.

A hijacked building in Jeppestown, 31 August 2020. Picture: Neil McCartney

“They have hijacked the building across the road from us and there has been illegal connections all over. They do it right in front of the workshop. There are children running up and down the road. Some are about 2,3 years old and nobody seems to be watching them and it just looks horrible over here…No action has been taken and we are at a turning point now.”

George Lontos, 49, has been running an auto parts shop for 14 years, but driven to his wits end, he is packing his tools away, having sold his building out of desperation. He says service delivery and security problems have left him with no other alternative.

The illegal connections have destroyed city infrastructure so frequently, Lontos and others have taken to buying trip switches for the transformer when the overloading causes them to melt. The single dad spends R2,000 a day on diesel when the power goes out, which is a devastatingly frequent occurrence.

“Police are too scared to come this side and City Power officials are afraid to climb the poles to fix the illegal connections, because they might get shot. There are animal carcasses, because they (residents) slaughter animals across the road and when they burn the skins, the fumes are so bad we can’t breath in our shop.”

According to City Power Spokesperson Isaac Mangena, the issue of illegal connections continues to be a sore point in the utility’s operations.

Picture for illustration. City Power members dismantle illegal connections at Rabie Ridge and Kanana informal settlements in Johannesburg, 17 June 2020. City Power Revenue Prorection Unit was assisted by SANDF, SAPS and JMPD to cut off illegal connections in the area. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

“Obviously within the City centre we find this in most hijacked buildings and informal settlements, especially around the hostels. Illegal connections not only cause the inconvenience to paying customers and businesses who are affected by constant outage, but also cost the city millions in lost revenue – money we could use to reinvest back into providing electricity to the people. City Power loses about R2 billion annual due to non-technical loses which illegal connections is part of,” he adds.

The city has seen an increase in vandalism of City Power infrastructure and the theft of cables, Mangena explains, with some sold at scrap yards while some is used to reconnect illegally to the city’s network.

“We are intensifying operations to clean up illegal connections across the city of Johannesburg working with the SAPS, JMPD and other law enforcement agencies. We appeal to the customers to protect their infrastructure and report any vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure.”

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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