In an effort to recoup non-technical losses that amount to R2 billion a year, City Power plans to impose steep fines on those who connect to the Johannesburg power grid illegally.
The move also comes after the fatal electrocution a couple of newly-weds lost their lives in Crosby during which City Power discovered that their rented house had a tampered meter and a missing earth leakage
Legislators have agreed on the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1997 and Criminal Matters Amendment Act of 2015 to empower the courts impose the harsher sentences on criminals who tamper with the national infrastructure. The amendment allows for the imposition of a severe penalty, which includes a maximum imprisonment of up to 30 years for the offender and a minimum sentence of not less than three years behind bars.
Meter tampering is a crime and a fraud. It may result in criminal charges being laid against an offender. City Power is legislated under municipal bylaws to cut electricity of the offender and remove their cable and circuit breaker and for a prepaid customer a meter as well.
Offenders will have to pay a reconnection fee penalty of between R10,000 and R50,000 when they apply for a reconnection depending on the seriousness of the offence.
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City Power is facing a huge challenge of stemming the tide of meter tampering, illegal connections, theft of electricity, vandalism and theft of the infrastructure. Tampering is an activity that includes altering, cutting, disturbing, interfering with, interrupting, manipulating, obstructing, removing or uprooting by any means, method or device an essential infrastructure, or component of the essential infrastructure, which provides a basic service.
City Power urges residents of the City of Johannesburg to desist from this illegal behaviour as it is viewed as a commitment of essential infrastructure offence.
The non-technical losses that City Power incurs annually amount to R2bn annually. This not only negatively affects City Power revenue collection and service delivery, but also result in loss of lives in the communities the utility serves.
In the last financial year, City Power recorded 16 fatalities and several injuries from illegal activities happening on our network. These included tampering with earth leakages in the private houses, which creates a dangerous situation.
Theft of meters and other forms of infrastructure deters the utility’s efforts to issue accurate bills, provide quality services to the residents of Johannesburg and contributes to increased tariffs for the residents.
City Power conducted 52 operations to remove illegal connections in the last financial year, which on average is one operation a week. In addition to removal of illegal connections in the informal settlements, City Power executed more than 17 000 electricity cut-offs at properties of non-paying customers, inclusive of businesses in the suburbs, in the last six months of the previous financial year.
Not only are illegal connections a violation of municipal bylaws and a danger to the people in the communities but they cause overloading on mini-substations and pole mounted transformers which eventually explode and burn leaving residents without power for several hours if not days before replacement infrastructure can be found.
Though City Power works with law enforcement agencies to stamp out elements of criminality from dismantling or vandalising our network, it also relies on partnership with communities to report such illegal incidents anonymously at 0800 002 587 or at their nearest police station.
