City Power disconnects 15 foreign-owned spaza shops for alleged illegal connections

City Power has disconnected at least 15 foreign-owned spaza shops in Eldorado Park that were found to have allegedly bypassed electricity meters.

The regional power utility took its revenue protection campaign to Eldorado Park, in Johannesburg, on Thursday.

The campaign aims to clamp down on illegal connections and meter bypassing.

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According to spokesperson Isaac Mangena, City Power has been experiencing high consumption levels since the beginning of this year’s winter season, increasing the risks of infrastructure damage.

In response to this challenge, City Power introduced load management initiatives, which include load reduction in some residential areas and load curtailment for business customers.

The power utility has also been going around the city and removing illegal connections.

“Illegal connections and meter tampering are among the most contributing factors to the network overload. This often leads to a high number of transformers and mini-substations getting damaged and destroyed,” said Mangena.

‘Backyard businesses concerning’

The power utility said homeowners who operate businesses in their backyards were also contributing to the problem.

“Homeowners avoid making the necessary applications from the city to get their businesses properly authorised and bulk services upgraded to cater for business requirements,” said Mangena.

This was discovered in Eldorado Park, where homeowners had connected spaza shops operating in their yards from existing household supplies, which had not been fitted to carry excessive loads.

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At least 15 businesses were disconnected and slapped with a ‘level three’ disconnection. This comes with the removal of electrical infrastructure to prevent the chances of reconnecting their businesses illegally.

The customers will have to apply from scratch and pay the reconnection fee.

The security team will also be patrolling the area to ensure customers do not reconnect their businesses illegally.

City Power revenue collection drive

The power utility has also been on a revenue collection drive, where it visits defaulting customers and either disconnects them or makes payment arrangements.

City Power says customers across the city owe at least R7.9 billion in electricity debt.

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As a result, it has struggled to keep up with its Eskom debt, which, according to the national power utility, stands at R3.4 billion.

In May, Eskom approached the High Court in Johannesburg in an attempt to get City Power to settle its debt.

City Power started to default on its payments in October 2023.

The High Court ordered Joburg and City Power to pay Eskom R1.073 billion, including interest, for the unpaid electricity account.

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This was for bulk electricity that Eskom supplied to Joburg in terms of the Electricity Supply Agreement between the two.