City Power disconnects unauthorised connections in Kya Sands
In a bid to try and recover electricity debts accumulated by just a handful of defaulters; City Power conducted a cut off operations.
After a series of complaints, City Power, with the help of law enforcement, seized 20 000kg of aluminium cable valued at R2.5m from the Pipeline Informal Settlement in Kya Sand.
The operation was in response to complaints from paying customers who reported cases of illegal connections, which had negatively affected the quality of power supply.
Isaac Mangena, City Power spokesperson, explained that during this operation one resident recounted feeling unsafe due to the invasive actions of these illegal operators, highlighting the urgent need for such interventions.
Read more: City Power fixes the power issues at Ekklesia Park Retirement Village
“While City Power continues to cut off illegal connections, there is still more that needs to be done to ensure that instances of illegal reconnections are minimised. We therefore urge law enforcement agencies to continue assisting with providing additional security around our infrastructure. We also call on communities to continue reporting suspicious activities around our network.”
Mangena added that the entity is sitting with more than R10b of unpaid electricity bills, making it difficult to effectively conduct essential maintenance work and infrastructure upgrades necessary to improve the quality of services.
“Despite numerous attempts to reach out to these defaulting customers, many have failed to respond, prompting the issuance of pre-termination notices.”
As part of the intensified crackdown on non-paying customers and illegal connections, the entity collaborated with the JMPD, SAPS, and security companies, in a disconnection drive in Ward 115.
Ward 115 councillor Mark van der Merwe explained that there are approximately 14 000 illegal connections in Kya Sands on both the industrial side and the Pipeline side.
Also read: City Power warns against connecting to grid illegally
“Unfortunately, the occupied land is mostly provincial land, so no supply of electricity has been made by the Gauteng Province, therefore leading to the illegal connections we are seeing. The province needs a solution to the illegal occupation of their land and provide formal accommodation to the South Africans.”
He said that this has negative impact to paying customers as cables used to run the illegal connections are usually stolen from them.
“Some time ago there was an operation where the authorities removed illegal cables, only for the removed cables to be replaced by further illegal cables within two days. Those cables would have come from areas where there are paying customers who would have then been without power.
“I think a more proactive stance would be to arrest those that are running the syndicate in the first place. Secondly, for Gauteng Province to formalise the area so that formal services can be provided to all living there,” added Van der Merwe.
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Related article: City Power urges customers to report suspicious activity
