FF Plus demands heftier fines for power meter tampering under City of Mbombela

The FF Plus has strongly opposed the fine of R500 for those who tamper with municipal power meters as a first offence within the City of Mbombela (CoM).

According to the FF Plus councillor in the CoM, Ken Robertson, the municipality owes Eskom approximately R1.4b.

He said Eskom’s decision to supply only the minimum amount of power to municipalities with overdue accounts is unfairly punishing residents who loyally pay their bills, and that the CoM is failing to take more stringent action against power thieves.

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“Although the debt is not due to power theft alone, it does play a significant role. An audit report on local power meters, tabled in council during May, found that about 1 200 fines had been issued to residents who tampered with power meters. The audit process is still under way, but these findings raise serious concerns. So far, the municipality has done nothing to increase the fines in the regulations to deter power thieves,” he said.

Robertson added that the fines make no distinction between residential offenders and registered businesses tampering with the power infrastructure. Businesses that tamper with power meters should be subjected to more stringent fines or a longer prison sentence, he said. At present, a second offence is only punishable by six months in prison or a R5 000 fine.

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The FF Plus will table a motion in September, requesting that the fine for first-time residential offenders be increased to R5 000, and for first business offenders to R10 000. The motion will also demand that residential offenders who are guilty of a second offence should be fined R20 000 and businesses R30 000.

Robertson said the FF Plus would continue to put pressure on the municipality until systems to eradicate power theft and tampering with power meters have been put in place.

The CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, was not available for comment by the time of publishing.