Hawks arrest two suspects

Investigators believed the money had been generated from the illegal sale of prepaid electricity vouchers, known as “ghost vending”, while the cellphones and laptops were thought to have been used by two suspects, who were arrested on Friday.

One of the suspects, the homeowner, and an accomplice faced charges of fraud in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Both were released after they posted bail of R50 000 each.

According to the Hawks, the amount of money found in the house and the lists of electricity meters indicated that one of the suspects was a leader in a ghost vending syndicate operating in many parts of the country.

Investigators are confident they are close to catching those who are running the ghost vending syndicate.

Eskom’s senior manager for energy trading and sales forecasting Maboe Maphaka said the arrests had come at a critical time, with the country grappling with the challenge of meeting the high demand for electricity.

“We have intensified our efforts to eradicate electricity theft through the implementation of the customer compliance approach, which is being implemented by Operation Khanyisa, a national campaign that works with law enforcement agencies in the fight against electricity theft,” said Maphaka.

“The customer compliance approach ensures an integrated focus on revenue and energy loss management and prevention, and combines meter auditing, detection and investigation and customer education – and the results are showing.”

This after Mondo Viljoen, who was found guilty of providing electricity theft services to farmers in various provinces, was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Lydenburg Magistrates’ Court last week.

Viljoen, who was found guilty in absentia in October 2014 on 21 charges related to electricity theft, was later apprehended and sentenced after evading arrest since he was found guilty.

During the trial, one of the farmers related to the court how he received an unsolicited visit from Viljoen, who then proceeded to tell him how he could reduce his electricity bill by up to 30% for a fee of R1 500.

As part of their plea bargain, the farmers had to pay revenue recovery charges to Eskom, which, for one of the farmers, came to R1.7 million.

Read more: Fraudster costs Eskom R1 million in losses