Rustenburg residents offered opportunity to lower their Eskom fines

Benet Monanyane .

The power parastatal Eskom in the North West province is expected to visit the community of Robega village near Rustenburg on Thursday. The provincial Operating Unit utility will on the day launch a Come Clean Campaign in its effort to fight against electricity theft and non payment as it continues to roll out its Customer Incentive Campaign in the province.

Eskom says the campaign intends to offer a 50% discount off the tamper fine to prepaid customers who have tampared and by-passed their electricity meters, who connected electricity in any irregular manner and used illegal pre-paid vouchers instead of buying valid electricity vouchers.

The community members who come clean against illegal activities will be offered an opportunity to have their electricity supply normalized without having to pay the full temper fine and the reconnection fee.

Eskom has conceded that while more still needs to be done,notable strides have been made in fighting illegal connections. Acting General Manager for Eskom’s Security Division ,Advocate Karen Pillay made a call to consumers to disassociate themselves with acts of electricity theft .

“Eskom would like to remind consumers that buying illegal electricity vouchers is a crime and punishable offence. Those found using illegal prepaid electricity vouchers could face disconnection, fines and even legal prosecution.” Said Pillay.

According to the latest announcement made by Eskom , South Africa loses about R20 billion a year due to illegal due to electricity theft in the form of illegal connections, non payment of accounts, meter tampering and ghost vending.