Pay your power bill or else, warns Eskom
According to Monde Bala, the utility is losing more than R5 billion a year due to non-payment and other forms of electricity theft.
The power utility has warned both residential and business customers to pay their electricity bills or face the consequences.
Eskom KwaZulu-Natal’s general manager, Monde Bala, said the utility plans to ‘vigorously disconnect and remove installations’ of those who are not paying their bills and are stealing electricity.
According to Bala, the utility is losing more than R5 billion a year due to non-payment and other forms of electricity theft.
“Non-payment, meter tampering and illegal vending by our direct customers is causing Eskom to lose a lot of revenue. While illegal connections and other leading forms of electricity theft are common, non-payment has sharply increased and is taking root in many parts of the country.”
Bala and his team are fighting electricity theft using a new way of investigating, which incorporates technical meter auditing, supported by criminal investigations and prosecution by law-enforcement agencies.
As a result of this new approach, he says that a large number of incidents of non-payment, meter tampering and illegal vending, as well as other forms of electricity theft, were uncovered in the province. This led to the issuing of numerous disconnection orders, tamper fees, arrests and prosecutions.
While the utility is focusing a stern eye on businesses, it is not forgetting its residential prepaid customers. Very soon, Eskom KZN will be offering its prepaid customers a 50 percent remedial fee as an incentive when a customer comes forward to become a clean and legal electricity user.
This offer is extended to customers whose meters have been tampered with; those who have not been paying for electricity; those who installed meters illegally and those who are buying illegal vouchers.
This campaign is currently running in the Free State, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape and will be implemented in other areas and provinces, including KwaZulu-Natal, in a phased approach.
“For our province, should residential illegal electricity users not take up the offer and pay the discounted remedial fee during the period of January 14 to March 31 2019, they will face heavy consequences that include disconnections, full debt payment, paying for new meters, possible arrest and prosecutions,” said Bala.
He again highlighted the important role played by law-enforcement agencies and the public in the ongoing fight against electricity and infrastructure theft and encouraged people to use the Crime Line number 32211 to anonymously SMS their tip-offs on electricity theft and non-payment.
Alternatively, people can report on the Crime Line website www.crimeline.co.za or the Eskom reporting line 0800 112 722, which is a toll free number.
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