Illegal connections
Electricity vandalism, illegal connections cost CoCT nearly R1m in Feb
Officials said most incidents of vandalism and illegal connections were recorded in the north of the city, which included communities like Hanover Park,...
City Power, police and JMPD officers took part in a blitz operation in the area on Tuesday to remove illegal connections.
They accuse the utility of making them the scapegoats for poor management of their infrastructure and said that they would continue demonstrating until electricity in the area had been restored.
Joburg City Power said that a fire started after a makeshift distribution board box blew up. The fire ripped through a small spaza shop in Greenville, an informal settlement that has been using illegal connections for years.
It’s understood a group of boys were swimming in a pool of water next to the railway line, when one of them made contact with open wires on the ground.
City Power is calling on Johannesburg residents to report illegal connections anonymously.
The utility said that the money could have been invested back into infrastructure and the city.
Residents in River Park took to the streets after seeing City Power, police and Johannesburg Metro Police Department vehicles descending on the nearby Alex Mall.
This week Eskom implemented load reduction in Khayelitsha to avoid network overloading during peak hours.
Eskom is warning that it was battling to function under the pressure of a cold front, the dangerous taxi violence playing out in the Western Cape and illegal connections across the country.
On Thursday, at least nine businesses and several households were disconnected from the grid in the Mayfair, Crosby and Slovo areas. R500,000 worth of cables were also removed.
On Thursday residents barricaded the main entrance of the area, forcing City Power to abandon its operation intended to cut operators.
The area is known for illegal connections and City Power said it had to act since stealing cables ultimately cost the utility millions of rands.
River Park residents blocked the main entrance to the community on Thursday morning as City Power officials tried to cut illegal connections in the area.
Illegal power connections appear to be a serious problem in Roodepoort and on Monday City Power disconnected homes and business as part of operation Kleena Joburg.
Spaza shops, hair salons and street vendors are the main drivers of the local economy in Diepsloot but without power, they say their businesses are as good as dead.
The majority of Diepsloot residents use illegally connected power, for which they illegally pay about R1,800 to connect to their houses and street lights.
Officials were conducting what they called “surprise cut-offs" for defaulters and illegala connections at houses in Dainfern, near Fourways, on Wednesday afternoon.
The community of Zone 2 barred the entrance of Megawatt Park in Sunninghill in a bid to have their electricity restored in high-density areas after a transformer failed in June.