Ward 72 councillor Lionel Greenberg has urged City Power to find an urgent solution to eradicate the scourge of stolen infrastructure.
According to Greenberg, the ward is in an untenable situation as City Power endures losses of fuses stolen, especially during load-shedding. “Given that residents’ homes are volatile without power and can be prone to criminal activity, we need an urgent solution to eradicate the scourge [of] sabotage.”
Greenberg claimed that the infrastructure has been strategically attacked by City Power contractors. “Sadly, I take this dim view on some of City Power’s contractors who participate in illegal connections, assist residents with stolen prepaid meters, theft of cables and deliberate poor workmanship to procure further work to loot City Power’s coffers.”
City Power has confirmed that they are aware of contractors who fraudulently obtain meters from City Power or customers’ properties to instal illegally in customers’ homes for a fee without the utility’s knowledge.
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Isaac Mangena, the spokesperson for the utility, urged residents to refrain from buying electricity meters from unauthorised re-sellers. He explained that this behaviour makes customers complicit in the illegal trade of stolen meters. “Customers who have bought these illegal meters often do not know that their accounts will accrue costs on the City Power or City of Johannesburg billing system as they will be billed on estimates,” said Mangena.
“City Power has been plagued by rampant theft of electricity meters, fuses and cables and many of these units have found their way into homes of residents via the black market.”
He added that theft of meters and other forms of infrastructure deters the utility’s efforts to issue accurate bills, provide quality services to the residents and contributes to increased tariffs. Besides the cost of replacing infrastructure and damaged equipment, Mangena said it interferes with the delivery of other essential services.
City Power incurs about R2 billion in non-technical losses every year which includes illegal connections, fraud and corruption of meters, faulty meters, cable theft and vandalism of infrastructure.
Details: Lionel Greenberg 084 247 7000.
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