Pietermaritzburg’s shocking power theft figures revealed

The Pietermaritzburg’s Executive Committee has called for swift action to be taken against thousands of “prepaid” electricity consumers who aren’t paying for their power, reports Maritzburg Sun.

A report recently presented to full council revealed that nearly two-thirds of the 34,062 prepaid meter power consumers were not paying for their electricity.

This means that 20,921 consumers are not paying, and only 13,141 are. This costs the near-bankrupt municipality over R100 million each year.

“The executive committee has requested a report on all suspected bypassed electricity meters within Msunduzi Municipality. To ensure sustainability of the council, it is imperative to reduce electricity losses and ensure every unit of electricity consumed by debtors is accounted for,” read the report.

The explosive report also revealed that over 1,000 normal or credit consumers were possibly tampered with, costing council of millions of rands worth of power.

“The electricity department must audit each property not purchasing prepaid electricity or has a suspected tempered or bypassed meter to audit the meter. The corrective steps must be taken on a case-by-case basis and new prepaid meters must be installed,” the report concluded.

ANC Moses Mabhida Regional Task Team coordinator Mandla Zondi said the matter had been discussed at a political level and it had been agreed on a need for an audit.

“Once the audit of every electricity user has been undertaken, it is easier to determine the number of consumers and to ascertain whether there is any theft. It also makes it easy to identify indigent consumers,” said Zondi.

The South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) expressed concerns over the report and its implications on the municipality liquidity. Sanco’s Fanle Sibisi said they would lead a campaign to get residents to pay for municipal services.

“In the past, we have not been at the forefront of such a campaign but it is part of our programme. What we want to ask residents is to be responsible enough to pay for services, but we would also want the municipality to ensure that the billing system works efficiently and does not give rise to disputes from consumers,” said Sibisi.

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