City Power disconnected electricity to 15 spaza shops in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg.
According to utility, the electricity was disconnected due to bypassed electricity meters.
City Power has been clamping down on illegal connections and meter bypassing because of the high level of electricity consumption and risks to infrastructure damage.
“Illegal connections and meter tampering are among the contributing factors to the network overload, often leading to a high number of transformers and mini substations getting damaged and destroyed,” said Isaac Mangena, City Power spokesperson.
Backyard businesses were also proving to be a major concern because the majority of homeowners were not making the necessary applications to get their businesses authorised.
“Extension 1 and 2 in Eldorado Park backyard spaza shops were cut off from the electricity supply due to illegal electricity connection and were immediately slapped with a level three disconnection, which comes with the removal of electrical infrastructure, to prevent the chances of the same customers possibly reconnecting illegally,” Mangena said.
Councillor Juwairiya Kaldine said: “These shops have more than three freezers each, that adds tremendous stress to the grid. We are cutting the power of all these shops in order to normalise the grid. Let’s be responsible citizens and residents, and continue paying for services, as the City of Joburg can’t operate without collecting revenue.”
Affected Eldorado Park customers will have to apply from scratch and pay a reconnection fee to get electricity reinstated.
City Power added that the removal of illegal connections was at the centre of the utility’s comprehensive plans to ease the load on the network.
Residents were urged to report illegal connections or tampering, by contacting 0800-002-587.
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