Johannesburg - In an effort to recoup R2 billion in non-technical losses a year, City Power plans to impose steep fines on those who connect to the Johannesburg power grid illegally.
The move also comes after the fatal electrocution of the newly wed couple who lost their lives in Crosby. Their rented house had a tampered meter and a missing earth leakage.
Legislators have agreed on the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1997 and Criminal Matters Amendment Act of 2015 to empower the courts impose harsher sentences on criminals who tamper with the national infrastructure.
The amendment allows for the imposition of a severe penalty, which includes a maximum imprisonment of up to 30 years for the offender and a minimum sentence of no less than three years behind bars.
Meter tampering is fraud. It may result in criminal charges being laid against an offender. City Power is legislated under municipal by-laws to cut the offender’s electricity and remove their cable and circuit breaker and, for a prepaid customer, a meter as well.
Offenders will have to pay a reconnection fee penalty of between R10 000 and R50 000 when they apply for reconnection, depending on the seriousness of the offence.
City Power is facing a huge challenge of stemming the tide of meter tampering, illegal connections, theft of electricity and infrastructure, and vandalism.
Tampering is an activity that includes altering, cutting, disturbing, interfering with, interrupting, manipulating, obstructing, removing or uprooting by any means, method or device an essential infrastructure, or component of the essential infrastructure, which provides a basic service.
City Power urges residents to desist from the illegal behaviour as it is viewed as committing an essential infrastructure offence.
The non-technical losses that City Power incurs annually amount to R2bn. This negatively affects City Power revenue collection and service delivery and results in loss of lives.
In the past financial year, City Power recorded 16 fatalities and several injuries from illegal activities on its network. These included tampering with earth leakages in private houses.
Theft of meters and other forms of infrastructure deters the utility’s efforts to issue accurate bills and provide quality services to residents. It also contributes to increased tariffs for residents.
Illegal connections also cause overloading on mini-substations and pole-mounted transformers which eventually explode and burn, leaving residents without power for several hours, if not days, before replacement infrastructure can be found.
City Power conducted 52 operations to remove illegal connections in the past financial year and executed more than 17 000 electricity cutoffs at properties of non-paying customers, inclusive of businesses in the suburbs, in the past six months of the previous financial year.
The Star