Eskom’s clamp down on electricity theft moves closer to home
Two Eskom employees have been suspended for their involvement in electricity theft and criminal charges have been laid against three others for the same offense.
Operation Khanyisa
Eskom is serious about its fight against electricity theft through Operation Khanyisa, a national partnership campaign that promotes the legal, safe and efficient use of electricity in various residential and business areas.
Eskom employees brought to book
Eskom’s Head of Operation Khanyisa, Dileep John, recently announced that 1 400 meter boxes have gone missing at Eskom’s Customer Network Centre in Mankweng in Limpopo, which are believed to have been used to illegally connect houses in Mamadimo Park.
“Eskom views criminal activity and electricity theft in a serious light, especially among its own employees. We work with various partners such as Crime Line as well as law enforcement agencies, including the South African Police and the Hawks, to ensure that criminals including our own employees are brought to book,” says John.
Operation Khanyisa successes
Operation Khanyisa’s successes include the arrest of 50 electricity theft suspects and court prosecutions against 26.The campaign has also helped reduce Eskom’s losses from 7.12 percent to 6.43 percent which translates to R1.4 billion savings annually in electricity that Eskom would have generated at a loss. Since 2013, the campaign has helped recover R618 million in revenue for Eskom.
Since its launch in 2010, the Operation Khanyisa campaign has been working hard to reduce the rate of electricity theft in the country as the knock-on effects of the crime have far reaching implications, including the loss of lives, especially of innocent children who get electrocuted by dangerous illegal connections.
Power cuts often caused by illegal connections
Many power cuts that South Africans experience are not through load shedding. In most cases they are not faults on the network. Most electricity interruptions are related to disturbances on the network as a result of illegal connections.
Anonymous reporting
Keep on reporting electricity theft anonymously to Crime Line on 32211 at R1 for an SMS.
