City Of Joburg Loses R2bn A Year Over Illegal Connections

LUCAS LEDWABA

RESIDENTS of a Johannesburg south suburb recently had to spend a week without electricity in the freezing cold after a transformer blew up because of illegal connections.

The explosion at the Lunar sub-stantion in Lenasia south caused a power outage that left thousands of residents in distress.

“City Power has an estimate of R2bn revenue loses annually. Illegal connections contribute 30% of such loses,” City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena told Inside Metros.

The scourge of illegal connections has been blamed by municipalities for being one of the major reasons behind the massive debt to electricity power supplier Eskom.

The power supplier told parliament that it’s owed over R19 billion by municipalities in unpaid services.

Municipalities have in turn blamed this partly on illegal connections. The debt is projected to worsen as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SA Local Government Association told the