Community hits back on electricity audit

BOPHELONG. – Angry Extension 17 and 18 residents questioned municipal workers on why they were cutting off their electricity now, after their votes have been secured in the recent national elections.
“We have already voted, Why does a cut-off campaign only start now?”
They asked after the cut-offs due to Emfuleni Local Municipality’s (ELM) recent electricity audit. Community members added that nothing was said about a cut-offs by their Ward Councillor in a recent meeting as he only told them to expect an educational workshop on electricity (auditing).
They said that the intention of that meeting was clearly to effect cut-offs and the auditing story was to neatly camouflage that fact.
Residents had been told to expect an audit that would educate them as consumers of electricity. Instead, a delegation of municipal officials arrived in the company of By-law unit officials to cut illegal connections.
The ELM said that the electricity infrastructure is currently under pressure and that the network is overloaded by illegal connections. This, it said, results in electricity outages leaving paying customers without electricity.
The electricity audit is aimed at removing illegal connections.
“This process is aiming to reduce the non-technical losses costing the municipality millions of rands in revenue loss, increasing infrastructure maintenance and replacement cost.”
ELM Municipal Manager (MM), Dithabe Nkoane, said the electrical grid is under extreme pressure and that the audit will help to read the illegal connections.
Nkoane warned community members resisting audits that they may experience prolonged power outages due to the damage caused by overloading to the electricity infrastructure.