Parts of Boksburg have been experiencing repeated power outages of late, and residents blame illegal connections in nearby informal settlements and the mushrooming backyard rooms in hostels and formal settlements.
Among those who highlighted the plight of legal and paying customers who suffer because of the significant rise in illegal connections are residents of Witfield.
School
Balmoral College management, and a number of businesses along Main Reef Road between the college and Pretoria Road, complained that they have for a couple of years been forced to contend with the recurring unplanned outages.
Speaking to the Advertiser, the school principal, Memory Wium, said for the last month their school only had electricity for less than a week.
“The problem is that we are on the same line as the hostel in the informal settlement, where there are a lot of illegally connected cables providing illegal electricity to backyard rooms and shacks. At night, any time between 5pm and 7pm, they overload the grid and it trips the substation, as well as the main substation in Witfield. It then takes officials about a week to come and switch it on, but the moment they do that, the power trips again that same night,” said Wium.
The school said the matter was escalated to the metro and the Ekurhuleni city manager’s office, but nothing has changed and the school is forced to run on generators most of the time.
“The only feedback we received from the municipality is that they don’t have a short-term solution to the problem and that there is no alternative line to connect our school on. There are also fears that if they switch the school’s power on and leave the Angelo area off, the residents are going to protest.
“So we are caught in the middle now. It’s a big problem for the school. We are paying our rates and taxes, which is a lot a lot every month. On top of that, we had to hire a generator, which is costing us a lot of money. Our children’s parents are not rich, we are also struggling with the school fees not coming in. Ekurhuleni should be looking after all of the people, us as well as the informal settlement. They must make a plan,” said Wium.
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Accident waiting to happen
The Advertiser visited the informal settlement, where a network of illegal electricity cables could be seen running from the municipal power lines and criss-crossing pathways to some of the shacks in the area.
The same situation was observed in Angelo informal settlement.
One of the residents, who asked not to be named, said he understands that it’s not right to make people who are paying for electricity and rates, businesses in particular, suffer, but the residents of the informal settlement also need electricity.
“We are not happy that people have resorted to stealing electricity because these connections make all of us residents vulnerable to electrocution, but people have no choice. When the mayor was campaigning for his position, he promised to electrify all informal settlements, but to date nothing has happened in our area. They haven’t even at least developed a portion of Angelo to give us hope that improvement is coming,” said the resident.
DA demands action
Tania Campbell, a DA member of the Community Safety Oversight Committee in Ekurhuleni, weighed in on the matter, saying the metro should act against the cause of the outages she described as a constant threat to Balmoral College.
“While schools across the country scramble to reopen following closures related to the lockdown, Balmoral College faces an uphill battle due to constant power outages, leaving them without electricity for days on end. The school’s electricity issues can be dated back to the load-shedding period of March 2019, where surges that follow the restoration of power caused further trips and remained off for hours and sometimes days.
“More recently, the school has seen intermittent power for a total of 75 hours in the last 10 days, with individual power cuts lasting between three and six hours,” explained Campbell.
She said the metro admitted the repeated power failure in the area stems from an overloaded network burdened by illegal connections in the nearby informal settlements and Delmore hostel, which is supplied by the same substation.
“In order to provide a long-term solution, the school will have to have its own substation to increase capacity and offset itself from the current linkage with the hostel in the informal settlement. Unfortunately, the metro has its hands tied in this regard due to budgetary constraints; however, it is of major concern that the issue has not been placed on the Ward’s Integrated Development Plan, especially given the scale and persistence of the problem.
“It’s clear that the school cannot function properly given the continuous power problems, and the City of Ekurhuleni needs to take urgent action to ensure the school functions properly. The fact that the school’s security system requires electricity to function is a major concern and leaves the premises vulnerable to vandalism and break-ins, especially given the trend of increasing school robberies during lockdown,” said Campbell.
Illegal connections
The metro noted the power problems are largely due to the significant rise in network overloading resulting from illegal connections and meter bypassing in nearby informal settlements.
According to the metro, Ekurhuleni is losing over R60-million of revenue due to electricity theft through illegal connections and meter bypasses. Furthermore, the cost of repairs to cables, mini-substations, pole-mounted transformers, overhead lines, circuit breakers, fuses and substation equipment range between R5-m and R7-m per year.
The costs exclude refurbishment, revenue enhancement and network enhancement costs. The metro pointed out that it has also been experiencing the same problem in Thokoza and Phola Park, largely due to illegal connections and meter bypasses.
“The areas have a high rate of illegal connections by means of direct connection onto distribution pillars, streetlights and high mast lights, which have resulted in about 63 per cent of customers not buying electricity. This has consequently resulted in poor grid stability and grid sustainability, with a peak of electricity interruptions in winter months,” said Themba Gadebe, metro spokesperson.
Curbing illegal connections
The metro said it has deployed various interventions, among them replacement of smaller and accessible electricity poles with taller (13m) poles and installation of prepaid meters in some areas. These measures have, however, been met with fierce resistance from the community.
The metro stated that considering the prohibitive costs of illegal electricity connections, both to the City and law-abiding citizens, these measures will continue despite the resistance.
“A budget of about R46-m will be spent in the next financial year on the electricity infrastructure in the area in question alone. The City replaces on average 15 faulty pole-mounted transformers yearly, mostly from May to August.
“The affected communities are urged to cooperate with the City in isolating rogue elements who are spearheading illegal connections and community resistance to disconnections. The grid can only provide reliable supply if it is not tampered with or overloaded with illegal connections. The City will continue with unannounced raids to disconnect illegal connections and stabilise the electricity supply,” said Gadebe.
The metro encourages community members to report any unsafe and illegal power connections by calling the City’s Anti-Fraud and Corruption hotline on 0800 102 201.
Electricity thieves vs paying customers
It appears the fight over electricity theft between illegally connected informal dwellers and the legal and paying customers is far from over as thousands of residents, including businesses, have to suffer due to electricity theft.
The Advertiser was recently inundated with calls from agitated residents complaining about power failures in their areas, complaining that these outages was because of the theft of electricity.
A few months ago, fights over electricity theft erupted between Delmore Park and Delmore informal settlement residents, as well as Joe Slovo informal settlement versus Reiger Park. The paying residents accused residents in the informal settlements of stealing electricity, resulting in recurring power outages in the formal settlements.
The situation resulted in sporadic protests where people were even prevented from travelling across the different communities.In some areas, including Ramaphosa, people, including children, have died as a result of illegal connections.
Indigent programme
The City runs an indigent programme for households that are unable to pay for their electricity, as well as sufficient water, basic sanitation, refuse removal and supply of basic energy. The benefits enjoyed by those who are registered in the indigent programme include the following free services: Water (9kl), Sewer (9kl), Electricity (100kwh), Refuse removal and property rates in line with newly adopted municipal property rates policy.
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Metro in a constant battle to deal with illegal connections
