The biggest grievances that residents have with the municipality include electricity issues; the billing crises, cable theft, load shedding and the unavoidable illegal electricity connections.
Electricity theft is a largely silent crime and Operation Khanyisa (‘Light up’) aims to voice resident’s concerns, being a national partnership campaign that promotes legal, safe and efficient use of electricity in South Africa. The campaign, started in 2012, is in partnership with Proudly South Africa, Eskom, Business Against Crime South Africa (Bacsa), Primedia Crime Line, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) and Business Unity South Africa (Busa) to promote responsible citizenship when it comes to electricity crimes.
Electricity is primarily stolen through illegal power connections, meter tampering, bypassing, illegal electrifications and the sale of illegal prepaid meters and meter vouchers. According to the Khanyisa Project website, less than 17 per cent of residents that have been surveyed believe that electricity thieves will be caught and can be prosecuted. So why care, many would ask. Theft relating to electricity and illegal connections is dangerous and life-threatening, it contributes to regular power outages and to higher electricity costs.
The Khanyisa Project stated that government estimates R4.4 billion is lost on electricity theft per year alone.
It is not the sole responsibility of residents to report and fight electricity theft as only 34 per cent of all electricity theft is residential while 66 per cent is committed in the business sector (according to Khanyisa Project’s website).
For this reason the project is associated with the South African Police Services (Saps) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
The project aims to “keep the nation power-ful” by promoting the reporting of electricity theft or fraud, the support of legal, safe and efficient use of electricity, the legal access of electricity, and the apprehension of prepaid theft syndicates.
The project has gone about reporting electricity theft in a relatively easy manner through use of the Primedia Crime Line (per SMS) and the Eskom crime reporting line.
To report electricity-related crimes in your area, send an anonymous SMS to 32211 (R1 per SMS) or contact 0800 11 2722.
Watch this video made by investigative photographic journalist Tjaart van der Walt:
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