MSUKALIGWA – The Msukaligwa Local Municipality recently appealed to residents to refrain from illegal electricity connections, meter tampering, and buying electricity from illegal syndicates.

According to Mr Sibusiso Innocent Malaza, acting municipal manager for the municipality, the increase in electricity theft, especially in highly dense areas, leads to substations and distribution network overloading.

This causes power failures and damages to the public’s property as well as municipal infrastructure.

“This winter season has led to more people ‘using electricity recklessly and putting our infrastructure under immense pressure’,” he said.

Mr Malaza added, in many instances, this resulted in transformer explosions, other infrastructure being damaged, and thus the municipality losing millions of rands in revenue yearly from infrastructure failure which is caused by network overloading and electricity theft.

He said the loss in revenue makes it difficult for the municipality to pay their debts to Eskom and procure maintenance equipment and or materials.

The municipality appeals to all its customers and community members:

• They must pay for the electricity they use

• They must only buy electricity vouchers from legal vendors

• They should stop by-passing and tampering with meters

“In the event where the municipal infrastructure is damaged or vandalised due to illegal connections, for the safety of the network and the public, the municipality will only replace the transformer once the illegal connections have been removed.

“Household meters will also be audited to ensure that it is safe to reconnect,” he said.

The municipality continues to work with law enforcement agencies to curb the criminal activities including electricity theft.