City Power lost almost R5bn of electricity purchased from Eskom
This is contained in the latest Auditor General’s report for the 2023/2024 financial year, painting a bleak picture of the power utility’s financial state.
A City Power employee. Picture: Rejoice Ndlovu/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - Johannesburg City Power has lost about R5 billion of electricity it purchased from Eskom.
This is contained in the latest Auditor General (AG)’s report for the 2023/2024 financial year.
The AG’s report paints a bleak picture of the power utility’s financial state and casts “significant doubt” on whether it can stay afloat.
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The AG said City Power recorded R4.9 billion of electricity material losses.
This represents about 30% of all purchased electricity by the power utility.
Most of the losses were due to illegal connections, damaged meters, and billing errors.
At a recent media engagement, City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava said this remained a huge concern.
“We lose the electricity either because our infrastructure is very old, so we lose that electricity because of heat, or we lose that electricity because we have suboptimal designs.”
Mashava said replacing City Power’s ageing infrastructure would be a long and expensive process.