During the tabling of the municipality’s medium-term revenue and expenditure framework during the meeting on 31 March, the council heard that the growing debtors’ book, ageing infrastructure and the need to reprioritise projects and expenditure within their existing resources are the municipality’s main challenges.
Residents breaching the electricity metres are also of great concern. The average loss in electricity for the six months ending in December 2020 was 46,38 per cent, compared to 44,46 per cent for the 2018/2019 municipal financial year.
The areas most affected are Kokosi, where a whopping 84,60 per cent of metres are bypassed.
This is followed by Khutsong South, where 83,06 per cent of metres are breached. In Greenspark, no electricity purchases were linked to 71.19 per cent of the metres, meaning that they had also been bypassed.
This is followed by the Wonderfontein plots, where 60 per cent of the metres are breached. The areas with the smallest percentage of electricity theft are Pretoriusrus (only 8,73 per cent), Waters Edge (9,09 per cent), Oberholzer (13.28 per cent) and Carletonville (15,36 per cent).
In Fochville, 16,07 per cent of electricity metres are bypassed, in Welverdiend 20,95 per cent, in Wedela 53,23 per cent, Blybank 64,59 per cent and Khutsong, 64,29 per cent.
The municipality says it is now exploring “alternative options” to solve the problem.
