POLOKWANE – Municipal Manager, Dikgape Makobe has warned residents and businesses that bridge electricity, that they would be in serious trouble in future, with huge fines to be instated soon. He said the bridging of electricity has been found to ‘slow down’ revenue collection by the municipality.
Read more: Breakdown of new electricity tariffs for city
He cited the example of a landlord in Seshego, who leases several units of which the electricity has been bridged. “Each time he just paid the R13 000 fine, just to connect illegally again. Had he paid what was owed to the municipality, it would have been more than R100 000 per month. It was more convenient and cheaper to just pay the R13 000 fine every month.”
Some 3 000 pre-paid consumers were not paying anything from 2015 to 2019, a report to the municipality stated. He said one of the malls was found to pay R40 000 instead of over R300 000 per month. Their meter, one week after installation, was not working, and has been tampered with. The meter was now placed in the road reserve.
Makobe said sometimes, electricians will assist consumers so that the meters show fewer units consumed than was actually used for them not to get caught, which would be the case had nothing been paid. He said the by-laws have a loophole but will be changed soon, possibly at a special council meeting on 29 September.
Fines for bridging will be increased as a deterrent and changed from the R13 000 to be paid now by households, to R50 000, while businesses will have to pay R150 000 before electricity is switched on again.
He also said a special unit will be established to go on the system on a daily basis, to determine who is not paying electricity for a month or more, and then an inspection at the premises will follow.
Makobe said it was also found that bridging was sometimes done with the assistance of municipal workers, who, he promised, would face big problems when identified. “Traps will be set to catch these electrical workers,” he said.
