Electricity theft via prepaid meters will not be tolerated, as voiced once again by the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, which turned down an application by a homeowner to declare the City of Tshwane’s conduct illegal in disconnecting her electricity before giving her prior notice.
The court found that the city's Standard Electricity by-laws provide for disconnection in response to the tampering of electricity supply, without giving the consumer prior notice.
The applicant is the owner of a property situated at an estate in Pretoria East. The electricity supply to her premises was disconnected because of what the city alleges to be tampering with her electricity connection so that she did not have to pay for it.
It is the applicant's case that she should have been given a notice before the disconnection; however, the city says in the event of tampering, there is no provision for a prior notice.
The applicant states that she purchased the property but did not immediately move in permanently as she was still residing at her other residence in Lydenburg, Mpumalanga.
When she eventually moved in a few months later, she noticed that there was no electricity on her premises. She reported the matter to the agents and attorneys who assisted her with the transfer.
They arranged for city electricians to investigate and the power was restored. However, the applicant stated that she was subsequently unable to purchase electricity or load any tokens.
She said when she moved in after five months, she discovered that there was no hot water. She contacted her electrician, who advised her that the circuit breaker was removed.
The homeowner denied tampering with her electricity and argued that the actions of the city to disconnect her electricity supply without warning should be declared unlawful.
The city told the court that they have a program to monitor prepaid electricity meter boxes, where there are no purchases of electricity or low purchases of electricity.
The program was necessitated by the fact that where there are no electricity purchases on prepaid meters, it has usually been found that the meters have been tampered with so as to enable a consumer to use electricity without paying for it.
The municipality said it is able to identify possible cases of electricity tampering through prepaid meters which do not report any electricity purchasing. It is stated that the municipality has discovered this ploy wherein consumers who bridged electricity resorted to purchasing low-electricity units.
The municipality discovered that the average electricity usage is not consistent with the units purchased. They, therefore, identify possible illegal connections, tampering, and/or theft by monitoring non-purchase or low-purchase prepaid meters.
In this case, it investigated the electricity box which serves several prepaid meters in the street in which the applicant had bought a property. They then realised that her prepaid meter had been tampered with.
Although they had earlier, on her request, connected the electricity supply, they had disconnected it immediately after tampering was found.
The court said the question is how was the electricity supplied to the applicant's house for five months (while she was away) without any electricity purchases.
“It does not take much imagination to see where the applicant got her electricity supply all along,” the court said.