City loses millions annually to electricity theft
Tshwane is losing nearly a billion rand annually to vandalism, cable and electricity theft.
Andrew Ngozo
The Tshwane metro has denied claims of rampant electricity theft and that it had no plan to deal with electricity losses which have crippled the economy for the past five years.
“At the best of times, technical and non-technical electricity losses are enough to bring this city to a standstill,” said DA councillor Peter Sutton adding the metro lost at least R873 million annually to electricity theft.
Sutton said the metro appeared to condone cable and electricity theft.
“The Tshwane metro is so reluctant to publicly speak out against cable theft, vandalism and illegal connections.
“It does not prioritise infrastructure maintenance despite the adverse effect on revenue collection,” said Sutton.
He claimed the metro also had only one option to punish defaulters, disconnecting electricity.
“We do not believe all avenues have been exhausted to deal with this matter,” he noted.
None of the allegations made by Sutton held any water, said Lindela Mashigo, metro spokesperson.
“The metro has installed tamper-proof boxes and prepaid meters. We are also electrifying informal areas and maintaining, refurbishing and replacing old equipment as well as strengthening of electrical cables and the overhead line network as measures to deal with both technical and non-technical losses of electricity which will result in more revenue,” he said.
Mashigo said that the metro conducted, on average, five raids to remove illegal connections per week and imposed a hefty penalty for illegal connections.
He said the metro was also aware of the rampant incorrect billing.
“A new mobile meter reading device fitted with coordinates has been bought for real time meter reading,” he said.
He denied that disconnection of defaulters was the metro’s only option.
“Options include serving the final demand notice which is followed by disconnection after 14 days,” he said.
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