Lights out on illegal Dainfern power connections
DAINFERN – City Power took to residents in the well-established area to disconnect illegal connections and those with overdue bills.
City Power, escorted by Metro police, came in force to the affluent neighbourhood of Dainfern on 23 September to check for illegal electricity connections.
Security in the area made access difficult for media and City Power to enter for fear of breach of privacy of residents, but later allowed them access after City Power threatened to disconnect the entire suburb.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said of the 1 098 customers in the Dainfern area, 204 customers owed between R3 000 and R1.4 million on their electricity bill. He added that 40 customers owed between R300 000 and R1.4 million with one customer owing R1.4 million.
Mangena added that the targeted customers lived in the suburbs of Dainfern, Dainfern extensions and Dainfern Ridge where City Power was owed and losing millions in revenue. “The operation is part of City Power’s revenue collection efforts targeting those who owe on their electricity bill, illegally connected to our network, bridged meters, and meters that have been tampered with to ensure the customer is not correctly billed,” Mangena said.
One house had a prepaid meter box which had been tampered with. Amos Lamola, team leader in the revenue protection department of City Power, demonstrated how a normal meter box should look and how the meter was tampered with, which resulted in the reading being inaccurate.
“Our record for this customer shows nothing… which is why we came to audit the meter. Upon audit, we discovered that the customer opened the meter and installed bare wire pieces inside.”
Lamola said the customer would be issued a fine of R22 000 and a new meter would be installed at the property.
