A call to address electricity theft

AS A PENSIONER who pays their electricity account timeously, I demand under the Freedom of Information Act to have a list published (name and shame) of all the government employees, officials, private sector property owners (landlords), tenants and wealthy individuals, who have not been paying for their electricity or have tampered with their meter.

In most instances, the culprits are assisted by unscrupulous municipality employees or subcontractors.

Should Eskom and the eThekwini Municipality try to implement the proposed, ridiculous electricity tariff increase the entire country should refuse to pay.

If we don’t unite we will never be treated fairly.

It is bad enough having illegal connections. We now have some of the rich, who are not paying. There appears to be an increasing number of households, which have bypassed their meters. These illegal connections and tampered meters lead to a strain on the grid resulting in blackouts and load shedding.

Households that are stealing electricity should be disconnected immediately or fined. The issue with stealing electricity is that someone has to eventually pay for it.

Here is an example of meter tampering, which had been reported to the eThekwini Municipality electricity department.

A tenant reported to the property owner (landlord) that their electricity consumption was high, that is, a six months average 7of 50kWh. The property owner took it upon himself tamper with their meter and the reading suddenly dropped to a 513kWh consumption for one month.

Once the tampering was reported, an inspection was conducted.

The revenue protection inspection form for credit and prepaid meters clearly reflected that the body seal of the meter had been broken and the meter reading not advancing due to visible tampering. The tampered meter was replaced with a new one within two days. But what happens to the perpetrators in such cases?

This is sabotage and theft to a critical infrastructure. The same can also be done to the water infrastructure. Therefore, we are in such a critical situation within the municipality.

PEEKAY (nom-de-plume)

Springfield

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media. 

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