Durban — The eThekwini Municipality is fighting a losing battle against illegal electricity connections which it blames on the poor socio-economic conditions in the informal settlements.
This was the response from the city’s deputy mayor, Philani Mavundla, to a question from Active Citizens Coalition councillor Mohammed Ismail at a recent full council meeting.
Ismail said there were 595 informal settlements within the city, all of which receive services.
Ismail sought clarity on the actual impact of urbanisation and non-revenue services. In response to Ismail’s question as to how many residents across the city were on the municipality’s billing system who contribute towards rates, Mavundla stated that residential properties contributing towards rates total 472 520.
Mavundla said revenues received towards electricity through the billing system over a three-month period between January to March this year were: January – R1.2 billion; February – R1.3 billion and March – R1.5 billion.
The amount paid to Eskom between January and March this year was R2.6 billion.
Mavundla said the city had 443 517 residential properties on the prepaid system and 321 214 on the credit system. He added that street lights were un-metered while municipal pump stations were metered supplies.
Mavundla told Ismail that routine meter sweeps and removal of illegal connections were undertaken. He said illegal connections were restored as soon as staff left the site, often with stolen cable from somewhere else.
“There are challenges as safety is a concern and staff are not able to do their work without planned operations with metro police and the SAPS,” Mavundla said.
The city also stated that it did not have bulk metering before entry of supply into any informal settlement, and neither was it measuring revenue received within the prepaid system in informal settlements.
Ismail said that the city had to pay all costs of supply to Eskom, including losses.
“The city said that all non-revenue burden has to be carried by the city. Electricity theft is approximately 8 to 9% of electricity purchased and this is carried by paying consumers. The Revenue Protection Branches’ key activity is removing illegal connections and disconnections in a bid to stop theft and recover monies. Electricity theft is an international crime and our losses are within the guidelines stipulated by the electricity regulator Nersa,” said Mavundla.
Daily News