City Power carried out an operation in Alexandra on Wednesday where illegal connections at the River Park flats, Greenville, and several homes along London Road were disconnected.
FILE: City Power officials on 3 June 2020 disconnected illegal electricity connections at Phumula Mqashi informal settlement in Vlakfontein. The officials were joined by JMPD and SAPS officers. Picture: @CityPowerJhb/Twitter.
JOHANNESBURG – City Power on Wednesday said that its group forensic department was investigating the resale of confiscated wires allegedly by the utility’s officials.
City Power carried out an operation in Alexandra on Wednesday where illegal connections at the River Park flats, Greenville and several homes along London Road were disconnected.
Residents moved into the flats in 2017 after they were abandoned by government.
They had connected illegally to the streetlights near the flats because the blocks were not allocated electricity meter boxes.
Alex residents are on the streets. They say they want nothing but basic services.
KYM pic.twitter.com/nO8cm6qwUG
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) September 9, 2020
Residents said that they were not bothered about being disconnected because the same officials disconnecting their power would later sell the cables back to them illegally and reconnect them.
City Power’s spokesperson Isaac Mangena said that they were aware of this.
“Most of the people that we use are actually contractors and not City Power employees. They’re actually contracted to City Power and that’s where we want to address it with them,” Mangena said.
