The City of Tshwane on Thursday said it disconnected 800 illegal electricity connections at the Brazzaville informal settlement.
The City of Tshwane Energy and Electricity Department, Tshwane Metro Police Department as well as the South Africa Police Service officers from Danville Station disconnected the illegal electricity connections on Tuesday.
“These illegal connections were connected to the Phelindaba overhead line which supplies areas such as Schurveberg AH and other nearby businesses,” said the City.
Daryl Johnston MMC for Utilities and Regional Operations said the illegal connections had a negative effect on the supply of electricity in the area to residential and commercial consumers.
“During the operation at Brazzaville informal settlement, an estimated R400 000 of electrical material was removed, including 11 kV overhead lines, aluminium conductors and aluminium aerial bundle conductors,” said Johnston.
“Our teams also removed three medium-voltage transformers.
“This is a significant set of stolen infrastructure. Illegal connections are the reason many areas experience power trips after load-shedding which result in extended power outages.
“This is made worse by the theft of City infrastructure, such as cables, conductors, and transformers.”
Furthermore, illegal connections cost the City hundreds of millions of rand in damages to infrastructure and repair costs,” said Johnston.
“These result in significant non-revenue losses that destroy the City’s finances.
“It is therefore important that we do everything possible to prevent this scourge.
“This latest operation is just one of many the City is participating in to protect our electricity infrastructure.”
TACKING ELECTRICITY THEFT: The City of Tshwane this week disconnected hundreds of cables at Brazzaville informal settlement
