City Power has moved to clamp down on illegal connections across Johannesburg by disconnecting residents who were suspected of having illegal electricity connections after refusing to grant meter readers permission to read their meters.
According to the entity, in some instances, residents had repeatedly denied City Power officials permission to take meter readings resulting in their meters not being read for a year or more.
Police and Metro police officials accompanied City Power on an operation to disconnect suspected illegal connections in Lenasia on 27 October.
However, City Power said this action was not limited to the suburb in the south of Joburg and was being undertaken throughout the city.
City Power urged customers to allow meters readers onto their property following its city-wide campaign to ensure that all electricity meters were read and that faulty meters were replaced with automated meters.
The objective of the initiative is to improve billing accuracy, the accuracy of electricity consumption figures, and ensure that consumers are billed for the accurate amount of electricity consumed, the entity said.
Meter readers could be identified by their City Power uniforms and ID cards and customers could contact the City Power call centre, on 011 490 7900/ 7911/ 7553 to verify the teams’ credentials before allowing the meter readers onto their property.
Consumers who were not at home when meter readers visited were asked to make a new appointment for meter reading in order to avoid disconnection.
