Durban — Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg) Municipality says it has been losing a lot of money, that should have been spent on service delivery, which goes into repairing electricity-damaged infrastructure.
In a Facebook post recently, Msunduzi said: “The municipality is paying over R250 million to Eskom. Illegal connections of electricity damage our infrastructure and lead to service interruptions and cost the municipality millions of rand to repair – money which should be directed towards service delivery.”
Municipal spokesperson Ntobeko Mkhize said there was vandalism at sub-stations and this resulted in power outages which inconvenienced residents and businesses.
Mkhize said although the sub-stations were monitored 24 hours a day, with security personnel patrolling the sub-stations and critical infrastructure, they were still losing over R90m annually to repair damaged infrastructure.
“On the issue of illegal electricity connections, theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure, the municipality loses over R90 million annually. The amount is increasing since new parts to repair the damaged infrastructure have to be sourced and the prices of the materials that are used are also increasing,” said Mkhize.
She said legal action was being taken against businesses found to have been illegally connecting their services.
Mkhize said revenue collection campaigns had been disconnecting illegal electricity connections.
Furthermore, Msunduzi continued with its #Qoqamamillon campaign among businesses and government departments.
Among the disconnected entities was the South African Revenue Service, which owed the municipality more than R700 000.
The municipality said it was owed at least R5.5 billion for services and was trying to collect the money.
Government departments, businesses and schools have not been spared in the disconnection campaign that has been running since the beginning of the month.
Smaller businesses and some government departments were fined after municipal officials returned to these places to discover power had illegally been reconnected.
Daily News