Pretoria - The City of Tshwane yesterday deployed electricians and policing authorities to Brazzaville informal settlement to disconnect 800 illegal connections that translated into multi-millions of revenue lost every year.
The move was initiated by the City’s Energy and Electricity Department in collaboration with the Tshwane Metro Police Department and SAPS.
These illegal connections were connected to the Phelindaba overhead line which supplies areas such as Schurveberg AH and nearby businesses.
MMC for Utility Services and Regional Operations Daryl Johnston said these illegal connections had a negative effect on the supply of electricity in the area to residential and commercial consumers.
“During the operation at Brazzaville informal settlement, an estimated R400 000 (worth) of electrical material was removed, including 11 kV overhead lines, aluminium conductors and aluminium aerial bundle conductors. Our teams also removed three medium-voltage transformers. This is a significant set of stolen infrastructure.
“Illegal connections are the reason many areas experience power trips after load shedding which result in extended power outages. This is made worse by the theft of City infrastructure, such as cables, conductors and transformers.
“Furthermore, illegal connections cost the City hundreds of millions of rand in damages to infrastructure and repair costs. These result in significant non-revenue losses that destroy the City’s finances. It is therefore important that we do everything possible to prevent this scourge.
“This latest operation is just one of many the City is participating in to protect our electricity infrastructure.”
Brazzaville resident David Motaung said the problem of illegal connections was actually the City’s fault because these informal settlement had been in existence for many years, but they had not been formalised so that they could also pay for water and electricity.
“We have been calling for the formalisation of informal settlements for a very long time. The list of those that will be formalised is very small every financial year, meanwhile the need for basic services like water and electricity does not wait.
“People need electricity to cook their meals and power their refrigerators because buying food everyday is not possible for the poor.
“Illegal connections are bad in a legal sense and place a strain on transformers, however, they are an indication of a deeper and more serious problem.
“That is a government that is not doing well due to corruption, maladministration and incompetence, because that is where funds were not used appropriate to formalise such settlements. And to also predict exponential growth of communities in urban areas and prepare for that.”
The City has been working hard lately to eliminate and address problems that bring frustration to revenue collection efforts, including disconnecting homes, businesses and government buildings that did not make payments towards their water, electricity and rates.
Pretoria News