Power dodgers cough up R9m

Undercover checks on electricity meters find five big companies underpaying bills

FIVE Nelson Mandela Bay businesses have been busted for stealing electricity – caught by the company hired by the municipality to curb power losses, Amat Cleaning and Security Services.

The firms, which the municipality referred to as big businesses and factories, were caught out during a sting operation and found to have tampered with their electricity meters.

They were subsequently slapped with R9-million in bills.

The city has refused to divulge the names of the businesses at this stage.

The breakthrough was revealed at an infrastructure and engineering portfolio committee yesterday.

Three months ago, Amat targeted big businesses and installed “check meters” in each, electricity and energy acting executive director Peter Neilson said.

The check meters were installed to compare bills and the actual usage of electricity.

Neilson said after Amat detected the theft, the results of the checks were sent to the University of Fort Hare to verify.

“In five of the six businesses that were checked, the meters had been tampered with. We notified the businesses and rebilled them R9-million for the three months detected.”

Neilson said some of the businesses had already paid their bills, while information from a further 39 meters had been submitted to Fort Hare for verification.

These later results were still pending.

Neilson said over the next four months, Amat would be looking at a further 250 businesses that the city suspected of having discrepancies in their bills.

“We finally feel we are on the right approach to try and deal with the issue of irregular meters.

“This has been one of the big drives that have taken a long time to find success in.

“Many commercial and industrial meters were read by contractors; it was not easy to detect misappropriation,” Neilson said.

Between July and December last year, the city lost more than R178-million due to electricity tampering.

Neilson said officials were now convinced that tampering and faulty meters in commercial or industrial customers was a huge contributor to the overall losses.

“What we are finding after this exercise by Amat is that a big portion of losses is coming from the commercial sector,” he said.

“We are not pointing a finger at theft only, but it is a combination of both theft and faulty meters.

“Everyone is going to be checked and measured.”

Asked what those who were caught out had said about why they tampered with meters, Neilson said: “They are not disputing [the findings].

“The response is often, ‘Yes I have noticed something was not right’. Nobody admits to being absolutely guilty, though. They don’t fight; they only fight about for how long it has been going on.”

The city still battles with illegal electricity connections, particularly in informal settlements.

Committee chairwoman Annette Lovemore referred to 15month-old Luniko Njikelana who died last month after being electrocuted by an illegal connection at his home in the Chris Hani informal settlement.

Lovemore said: “The death of Luniko was a very painful and disturbing incident. We need to deal with illegal connections and now theft by tampering of meters.”

Neilson said an invoice from Amat had been received for the first time in 18 months.

“This is their second bill since they started,” he said.

“Through this exercise they billed us R7-million.”

Amat was hired by the city more than two years ago.