Illegal connections in Gauteng cost Eskom R7bn a year

Illegal connections in Gauteng are costing Eskom about R7bn a year in lost revenue as the beleaguered utility seeks to recoup billions of rand more in unpaid services.

Mashangu Shivambu, senior manager for maintenance and operations in the region, said the state-owned power company loses almost R22bn a year due to “non-technical issues”, with almost a third of that occurring in SA's richest province.

On Thursday, Eskom conducted inspections of its infrastructure and removed illegal connections in Marlboro, Johannesburg.

The utility also disconnected residents at Setjwetla in Alexandra who had illegally connected their households to substations. Residents there have also built homes under Eskom pylons, which the utility said is dangerous and illegal.

The operations are part of the company’s campaign to boost revenue lost to non-adherence of its standard conditions of supply.   

“[Eskom is losing a lot of money] that we were supposed to use to maintain our plants, making sure we create an infrastructure that will ensure people have reliable electricity,” Shivambu said.

Illegal connections cause network faults and customers who are switched off during load-shedding end up suffering unscheduled outages thereafter, he added. 

“Customers will be off because we have network faults that are generated by these illegal connections. The connections are not properly done, not protected and as a result [the network trips],” Shivambu said.

The country would avoid two stages of load-shedding if Eskom was able to root out illegal connections in Gauteng alone, he added. 

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