14/10/2015
The Tshwane metro has denied claims of rampant electricity theft and that it had no plan to deal with electricity losses that have “crippled” the economy for the past five years.
“At the best of times, technical and non-technical electricity losses are enough to bring this city to a standstill,” said DA councillor Peter Sutton, adding the metro lost at least R873 million annually to electricity theft.
Sutton said the metro appeared to condone cable and electricity theft, Rekord North reported.
“It does not prioritise infrastructure maintenance despite the adverse effect on revenue collection,” Sutton said.
He claimed the metro also had only one option, disconnecting electricity, to punish defaulters.
“We do not believe all avenues have been exhausted to deal with this matter,” he noted.
None of the allegations made by Sutton held any water, said metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo.
“The metro has installed tamper-proof boxes and prepaid meters. We are also electrifying informal areas and maintaining, refurbishing and replacing old equipment as well as strengthening of electrical cables and the overhead line network as measures to deal with both technical and non-technical losses of electricity, which will result in more revenue,” he said.
Mashigo said that the metro conducted, on average, five raids to remove illegal connections per week and imposed a hefty penalty for illegal connections.
He said the metro was also aware of the rampant incorrect billing.
“A new mobile meter reading device fitted with coordinates has been bought for real-time meter reading,” he said.
He denied that disconnection of defaulters was the metro’s only option.
“Options include serving the final demand notice, which is followed by disconnection after 14 days,” he said.
In June, the Tshwane smart meter tender saga with PEU led the DA to consider initiating criminal charges.
DA’s Lex Middelburg said his party had unravelled new material and correspondence that show that the municipality concluded a contract to install 800 000 smart electricity meters in the South African capital with PEU Capital despite red flags raised by National Treasury.
“The mayor [Kgosientso Ramokgopa] and the municipal manager of Tshwane [Jason Ngobeni] ignored the opinions, advice and express written instructions of the then Minister of Finance and head of National Treasury Pravin Gordhan not to proceed with the contract for the rollout of prepaid smart meters in the city by PEU Capital Meters,” said Middelburg.
“They also failed to disclose this information to the council of Tshwane. In a letter by the minister to the mayor, dated September 13, 2013, the minister raised concerns that the contract between Tshwane and PEU was entered into without complying with applicable legislation.”
– Caxton News Service
