Council targets illegal connections.

LYDENBURG – The acting municpal manager, Mr Godfrey Nkosi recently put his money where his mouth is.

After sending out stern warnings that electricity breaching would not be tolerated in town, Nkosi and other officials of Thaba Chweu Municipality went to several households to inspect prepaid meter boxes.

Steelburger/Lydenburg News accompanied the entourage of TCM. At the very first complex and first house in the Sterkspruit region they visited, a breached meter was found. The front of the box was removed and wires bypassed directly to the electricity box for uninterrupted electricity supply.

The tenants of the house explained that the box had been like that for the past three months. They told Nkosi that they apparently pay their electricity with their monthly rent to the estate agent.

They, however, refused to tell him the exact amount they were paying for their monthly ‘electricity account’.

The electricity to the house was immediately disconnected.

Several more complexes in the area were inspected but no other breached boxes were found.

Officials then proceeded to various other households in the Spaar-o-Rama and Heads areas. At another complex house, a woman told Nkosi that she could not gain access to the prepaid box since the owner of the house had several of his possessions locked inside and only he had access to the garage where the prepaid box were installed.

Nkosi asked her how it could be possible not to have access to the prepaid meter. “What if there is a power failure? How do you load prepaid electricity without access to the box?” he asked.

The woman said that they then have to phone the owner to come and switch on the power. She also said that they pay a flat rate for rent including R500 for electricity which the owner puts on the meter.

The circuit breaker of the house was subsequently removed until the owner could provide evidence that the box is intact and not breached.

Nkosi confirmed that he would provide the exact amount of households that were caught breaching boxes as soon as possible.