Share

Illegal connections trip Eskom supply to parts of JHB

Cape Town – Illegal connections overloaded the electricity grid causing power outages across parts of Johannesburg this week, Eskom said on Friday.

Eskom said communities should “refrain from connecting themselves illegally, to use electricity sparingly and stop buying electricity from ghost vendors”.

“The intermittent power interruptions experienced this week particularly in Soweto, Emfuleni, Katlehong, Bophelong, Kagiso and Cosmo City have now been restored,” it said in a statement.

“The power outages were caused by overloading of the network because of illegal connections and some network related faults.”

Soweto has approximately 180 000 customers, 80% of whom are on a conventionally billed metering system and the remainder are on a prepaid metering system.

The plan is to convert all customers to split prepaid meters within five years. Eskom will waive Soweto residents’ debt repayments (which total around R4bn) as an incentive to convert to prepaid meters.

Eskom said it has installed over 40 000 split prepaid meters and converted over 13 000 to prepaid mode.

Eskom said its teams worked “tirelessly over the past few days to restore power to the affected areas”.

While Eskom said it did not anticipate any load shedding “this winter and beyond”, it appealed to customers to reduce their electricity consumption especially during peak periods (06:00 and 08:00, 17:00 and 20:00) in order to ease pressure on the power system.

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Rand - Dollar
18.90
+0.2%
Rand - Pound
23.86
+0.2%
Rand - Euro
20.36
+0.3%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.31
+0.3%
Rand - Yen
0.12
+0.2%
Platinum
908.05
0.0%
Palladium
1,014.94
0.0%
Gold
2,232.75
-0.0%
Silver
24.95
-0.1%
Brent Crude
87.00
+1.8%
Top 40
68,346
0.0%
All Share
74,536
0.0%
Resource 10
57,251
0.0%
Industrial 25
103,936
0.0%
Financial 15
16,502
0.0%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Company Snapshot
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE
Government tenders

Find public sector tender opportunities in South Africa here.

Government tenders
This portal provides access to information on all tenders made by all public sector organisations in all spheres of government.
Browse tenders