According to the utility, meters will be installed in secure boxes that will not be able to be opened without a specialised key. The key will only be accessible to City Power employees.
“As part of the prevention measures against electricity theft and loss of revenue, City Power is in the process of installing prepaid meters in protective structures to avoid user interference and tampering,” said City Power spokesperson Louis Pieterse.
However, he said customers would still be able to use the user interface device to load credit onto the meter.
The move follows several suburbs in Joburg being plunged into darkness due to illegal electricity connections.
“Our law abiding customers have been inconvenienced by a few rogue residents who have complete disregard for the safety of others,” Pieterse said.
“These illegal connections pose extreme danger to the users and put the grid under undue pressure resulting in outages due to overload, and constitute a significant revenue loss to City Power and the City of Johannesburg.”
He added that illegal connections put the lives of community members at risk as there was inadequate protection against the illegally connected live wires, resulting in a higher risk of fire and electrocution.
Pieterse said the utility and the City of Joburg had made provisions for households that could not afford to pay for electricity and other municipal services due to indigence or because of low income.
According to Executive Mayor, Parks Tau on average 32 percent of all outages per month were caused by theft and vandalism and 12 percent due to stolen cables and illegal connections.
This week, City Power employees who went to Lenasia to disconnect illegal connections, were intimidated by some members of the community.
The utility urged the public to anonymously report any incidents of illegal connections, cable theft and vandalism to 080 000 2587. Incidents of vandalism or cable theft could also be reported to 011 490 7533/7911/00.
