The Executive Mayor of Msukaligwa, Cllr Sipho Bongwe, last week embarked on a random crackdown on households, in an effort to identify defaulters of municipal accounts, illegal electrical connections and buildings that have no electrical meters installed.
He was accompanied by various heads of department and councillors.
During an inspection in Autumn Ridge on Monday, 8 June, one illegal electrical connection was found.
In a follow-up inspection on Friday 12 June, of 71 newly-built houses, five were found to be occupied, but either did not have meters installed or the meters had been tampered with.
A further three unoccupied houses were found with no meters installed.
All meters inspected were duly sealed with a new tamper-proof seal.
Also on Friday, ad hoc inspections that were carried out on households in the Strydom Street area revealed three electrical meters that had been tampered with. One meter that had short-circuited was removed, but most of the meters inspected in this area were found sealed.
On June 9, armed with a list of 206 defaulters, the inspection party visited Wesselton, Ermelo, KwaZanele and Breyten and found a total of 30 meters that had been converted to pre-paid, but consumers were still without electricity.
Between 10 and 11 June, a Zero Sales and Tamper inspection carried out in KwaZanele and Breyten on more than 140 households showed zero electricity sales on their monthly accounts.
It was found that 125 meters had been tampered with.
Electricity supply cables to 26 of these households were duly removed by council technicians
An inspection of 134 households in the Nooitgedacht and Owls Nook complexes on 12 June revealed that of the 134 households inspected only one meter was found to have been tampered with. All other meters were still sealed.
In the past, consumers resisted inspections by attempting to intimidate employees of contractors who were carrying out cut-offs at Emadamini and Mndeni flats and damaged their vehicles.
Residents also tore up the list of cut-offs. An official case file has been opened at the police with regard to this incident.
Mr Bongwe said these ad hoc inspections must serve as a warning to all defaulters and those who were tampering with electrical meters that the municipality is determined to ensure consumers pay for all municipal services.
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