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'As a community, we take out R10 per household to give to these boys who source our cables. We don’t pay any additional fees'
City Power on Wednesday embarked on an operation in the Crown area near Enco Park, Johannesburg.
The operation aimed to completely cut and collect all the illegal cables connected to the grid in an area where several shacks were built close together.
Operation to the rescue
Speaking to The Citizen at the scene, Isaac Mangena, General Manager of Public Relations and Communications at City Power, said there were no disruptions or hostility from community members.
“With the help of the JMPD, Saps, and Gauteng traffic wardens, we managed to fend off some of these threats that are here. We managed to disconnect about 10,000 kilograms of aluminium and ABC cables, these are the cables that are often stolen from street lights.”
Councillor Mpumi Edward added that she was pleased with how the operation went.
“Several of the households in this area are connected directly to the grid illegally. These connections really pose a danger to our communities and people walking past here because of the nature in which they are done. There are cables hanging across the streets and on the roads.”
R10 gets you power
Residents of the settlement have told The Citizen that they do not pay for any services.
“As a community, we take out R10 per household to give to these boys who source our cables. We don’t pay any additional fees, just the R10 for them to organise cables and connect us.
“We also have taps here with water, so we are fine.
“On that side, by the road, we have portable plastic toilets,” explained Sophie Majo from Zimbabwe.
The toilets also had cables dangling from the top, used as anchors to transfer electricity.
“As City Power, we intend to move the connection point from where it is currently situated. Another thing we are doing, with the assistance of the national treasury, is to ensure that informal settlements that are not proclaimed are registered.
“Then we can put a bulk meter around and they can connect as much as they can and we bill treasury and the department of housing,” said Mangena.
The councillor further emphasised that: “as residents of Johannesburg and public representatives, we need to ensure that we uphold the highest levels of ethical standards in how we do things within the city.
“Of utmost importance is that we need to educate our residents so that they are aware of ways to connect to the grid legally.”
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City Power not completely innocent
When asked about the possibility of such incidents being an inside job, Mangena said the utility was aware that City Power officials and contractors could be assisting with illegal connections.
“A normal person may not be able to know how to operate a mini substation, or even how to connect a mini substation. Most of them may not even know where the electricity infrastructure is running, most of the people who know will be people from City Power, either contractors or staff members.”
“We have already arrested some of our people that we managed to track, and we are also on the tail of those we believe have in the past been involved in these criminal activities.
“At least five people have already been arrested in the past three or so months for their involvement in this. We are happy that they are actually being sentenced and being sent to jail.”
