Replacing Burnt Transformers in Tsakane Too Costly

Bypassing transformers to connect electricity illegally is a costly, criminal act.

Tsakane residents who were affected by outages caused by transformer failures, and city officials and Eskom met with the residents to explain to them the reasons for power cuts. A consensus was reached to disconnect everyone who is found to have by-passed electricity so that transformers can be replaced to maintain a stable supply of electricity.

Eskom technicians together with city officials carried out an audit on illegal electricity connections. The outcome revealed that ten transformers were damaged due to illegal electricity connections and required immediate replacement.

People who were found to have connected electricity illegally were disconnected upon inspection and got a fine of over R6 000 to be reconnected.

Meanwhile, the City’s Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Finance and Economic Development Cllr Nkosindiphile Xhakaza set aside a budget of R1.2 billion for electricity grid maintenance and operations for 2020/2021 financial year. The main areas of focus will be illegal connections, cable theft, refurbishment of sub-stations, streetlights and meter tampering.

Caption:

Pic 1&2: Eskom technicians remove damaged transformer and replace it with a new one in Tsakane.