The Musina Municipality has warned that it will act firmly against residents who make themselves guilty of illegal water and electricity connections.

“An illegal connection is not only dangerous, it is also a fraudulent action that could result in legal prosecution,” says Municipal Communications Officer Wilson Dzebu.

“Illegal connections are dealt with in the credit control process and if a consumer continuously reconnects illegally, the connection to the premises will eventually be removed and the consumer will be prosecuted,” he says.

Illegal connections are mainly the result of the fraudulent reselling of electricity. In some cases, consumers connect illegally to the bus bars of a metering cubicle or metering installation. The tampering with and bypassing of meters and meter installations are also considered as illegal connections.

Dzebu said that all the cases that the community reported to the municipality would be monitored. Up to the middle of February 2010, 26 illegal electricity connections were picked up in Musina and the municipality is still picking up more.

The safety of consumers is also an issue. Since meter cubicles are supposed to be locked, it is mostly found that the cubicles are opened by force, whereafter the electrical equipment is left open and unprotected and can be accessed by the public. This may easily lead to electrocution. Damage to the electrical network is also enormous.

In certain instances, illegal consumption also results in the overloading of portions of the electrical network and unplanned outages. This in turn often leads to loss of income through electricity sales and inconvenience for residents willing to pay for services consumed.

Dzebu said the most worrying factor of illegal connections, however, is that it threatens the safety of all the people who live in the area. “The loss of human lives, especially young children, due to the irresponsible actions of some residents is unacceptable. We therefore appeal to residents to stop this practice and to legalise their electricity and water connections."