The City of Joburg says it will not hesitate to open criminal charges against any residents or businesses who illegally connect to the power system after being disconnected.
This comes after residents in the middle-income community of Naturena threatened to reconnect electricity illegally after a team of City Power revenue protection team officials descended on the community this week.
They only managed to disconnect 20 houses as angry residents created a hostile environment, leading to the officials abandoning the mission.
The greater Naturena community owes the City of Johannesburg R309 million, and among the 3 000 prepaid customers, only half were paying for their electricity.
Kgamanyane Maphologela, the City of Joburg’s spokesperson on finance, said they were declaring zero tolerance against illegal connection of services and that they would not hesitate to lay criminal charges, which could lead to possible arrests and hefty fines for those who illegally connect to water and light services.
“The city is losing a substantial amount of revenue due to illegal connections to services,” warned Maphologela.
IOL reported that Joburg Infrastructure Services MMC Jack Sekwaila said the culture of electricity theft and non-payment was contributing to the City failing to raise the R4.7 billion monthly from residents and businesses.
Maphologela said the City would intensify efforts to recover monies in the coming days and weeks.
Maphologela said the Credit Control Policy enables the City to disconnect services and demand full payment of arrears plus any illegal reconnection penalty fees to be paid prior to the restoration of services.
Maphologela said they had implemented Level 3 disconnection of water and electricity supply protocols to businesses that had illegally reconnected themselves to services.
“The Level 3 disconnection means the city removes its infrastructure, which includes the meter from the premises. All property owners who are struggling to service their accounts for various reasons should approach the city to avoid being cut off and arrange to sign an acknowledgement of debt,” said Maphologela.
IOL