Unfettered tampering with electricity meters, coupled with vandalism and theft of infrastructure, is suffocating Endumeni Municipality’s attempts to settle the R192-million Eskom debt.
This is the view of the Endumeni Residents Association (ERA) following a meeting with the municipality’s Technical Department to discuss, among other issues, the 87 complaints of dud streetlights in Dundee and Glencoe.
The Courier was prevented from attending the meeting.
However, in an interview with the ERA executive, it was revealed that the association had offered the services of two qualified electricians, free of charge, to help carry out repairs to the streetlights.
“The offer was for two months to help get the (technical) department back on track. Members did carry out repairs to streetlights in Glencoe in June, which for years had been ‘dead’,” said ERA chairperson FC Bester.
In a written reply to the ERA, Municipal Manager Sithembiso Ntombela did not refer directly to the offer but did request that ERA members assist with the reporting of any vandalism and/or theft of electrical infrastructure.
Ntombela said that vandalism of streetlights – blamed on thieves who steal and resell the copper cabling – is ‘setting back the progress the municipality has made to carry out repairs amid an unfunded and strapped budget’.
He called on the SAPS, Community Policing Forums, the ERA and all residents to work together to root out ‘criminal elements that hold our communities to ransom’.
Ntombela added that the municipality’s ‘revenue enhancement programme sought to recover old debt’. However, this is dependent on the municipality’s ability to meet the Eskom agreement and on customers paying their service charges.
However, the ERA believes that not enough is being done to bring meter thieves to book.
Reference was made to a complex of 10 units that are only fed by three meters, which are tampered with.
“This was brought to the fore three years ago, but nothing has happened. Additionally, as there are only three meters, it means that seven of these units are receiving refuse removal free of charge, which is hardly fair on all those who pay for the service,” explained Andrea McCarthy of the ERA.
Industrial operations are just as guilty, the ERA claims, citing one business that is ‘probably eating up R20,000 worth of free electricity a month’.
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