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Some of the 48 rental rooms built in a recreation park in Roodepoort.
- A 48-room housing unit, a church, a butcher shop, a liquor store and several grocery stores were plunged into darkness after City Power turned off the lights.
- The housing unit is built in a recreational park and gets electricity and water from neighboring properties.
- City Power claims it is losing nearly R2 billion annually due to illegal connections.
A 48-room housing unit, a church, a butcher shop and several grocery stores in Roodepoort, Johannesburg, were left in darkness after City Power disconnected illegal connections.
City Power officials accompanied by other Johannesburg city entities pounced on the housing unit where they made discoveries of rampant illegal connections.
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The housing unit comprising 48 rental rooms is built in a recreation park in Roodepoort. The owner told authorities that he had leased the property to the city of Johannesburg.
The man claimed that he had built 48 rooms that he rents to his tenants for R1 650 per month each.
The building illegally obtains electricity and water from neighboring properties.
Meanwhile, City Power officials also went to the Golden Meat Basket butcher shop, the local Universal Church and neighboring stores and disconnected and seized illegally connected cables.
The city claims it was losing nearly R2 billion annually due to illegal connections.
Recharge
MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services Mpho Moerane said they are reloading their Joburg Cleaner campaign to clean up Roodepoort and remove all illegally connected electricity.
“We have shut down all companies that are illegally connected to our network. We are going to audit everyone in this area throughout the week. We ask all companies to come to us, fix their accounts and reconnect properly.
“We want to send a strong warning to all those who continue to connect power illegally. We have a duty to eliminate all illegal connections,” Moerane said.
Moerane said that some companies have been fined R30,000.
Some companies refused to give officials their municipal accounts.
“Some meters are not in our database. We want to send a warning to our officials not to illegally connect power to companies and provide them with stolen meters. We are tracking how some companies illegally obtained our meters and from whom.
“I don’t want to rule out that our officials are colluding with businessmen to provide them with electricity illegally. The City is losing almost R2 billion per year on illegal connections and unaccounted for electricity.
“We want to reduce the almost R2 billion that we are losing and reinvest them [in] infrastructure. If not, the infrastructure will collapse and people will experience an overload and have no electricity, “Moerane said.
Moerane promised that they will audit all the missing meters in their warehouse.
“If our officials are involved, we will take them to disciplinary hearings and finally we will fire them if we find any crime against them,” Moerane threatened.
