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DEPARTMENT: PUBLIC ENTERPRISES
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO.: 911
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 03 May 2013
911. Ms B D Ferguson (Cope) to ask the Minister of Public Enterprises:
Whether he has found that the awareness campaigns regarding electricity
theft and the dangers of stealing electricity are effective; if not, what
is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
NW1137E
Reply:
According to Eskom:
The campaign is already yielding results, among which are the following
achievements:
⢠Since the launch of Operation Khanyisa, more than 6 000 tip-offs have
been received. Eskom together with the relevant municipalities are
hard at work acting on this information.
⢠More than R200 million has been recovered in the past three years,
thanks to customers who responded to the call to report perpetrators.
⢠Operation Khanyisa involves working with law enforcement agencies to
devise a strategy through which the loophole in legislation can be
mitigated, such as the absence of a definition of electricity theft as
a criminal act. This approach is showing rewards in that the number of
arrests and prosecutions of theft related to electricity has
increased.
Since the inception of this campaign, about 112 suspects were
arrested, including 58, over the past year. In 2012 five convictions
were registered nationally in various courts. The sentences are
commensurate with the crime. A watershed case was the one in the South
Gauteng High court where two suspects received 15 and 18 year jail
sentences respectively and their assets were seized. This case is
changing the way people view theft of electricity and we are detecting
a groundswell of support among communities for the campaign.
In addition, structured audits are regularly conducted on electricity
installations and meters which are not functioning correctly. A specialised
team has been established to deal with conventional revenue losses where
identification and loss determination occur and recovery is initiated.