Through Operation Khanyisa, a national partnership campaign established in 2010 by power utility Eskom and other organisations to fight electricity theft, illegal connections in the North West’s Chaneng village, where electricity theft is widespread, were removed on Wednesday.

North West, along with Mpumalanga, Free State, Limpopo, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, have been identified as the provinces with the highest levels of electricity theft.

Electricity theft results in a R15.9-billion loss to the country’s municipal accounts, Operation Khanyisa marketing project manager Madelline Kadzinga said during a media tour.

Further, it is estimated that illegal connections, meter tampering and bypassing, the buying and selling of illegal prepaid power vouchers, infrastructure theft and nonpayment, amounted to R4.8-billion in nontechnical revenue loss.

However, through Operation Khanyisa, Eskom’s electricity theft-related losses have reduced from 7.12% in 2013 to 6.43% in 2016, which translates to a saving of R1.4-billion a year in electricity that would have been generated at a loss.

Over the same period, the utility has recovered about R618-million in revenue from nonpaying customers.

In the North West, electricity theft amounted to 9.05% in losses in 2013/14, which had reduced to 7.41% in the 2015/16 period.

Further, Kadzinga highlighted that, through the programme, they anticipated reducing national electricity theft-related losses to 6.33%.

She added that, while it was essential to the economy to curb theft, it was also key for Operation Khanyisa to save lives.

Over the last year, nine fatalities occurred in the North West owing to electricity theft. “When customers bypass connections, they are bypassing their safety and bypassing their lives,” she noted.

Despite the perception that electricity theft mostly occurred in townships, residential theft amounted to 46% of electricity theft each year, while theft in the business, industry, commerce and agriculture sectors amounted to 54%.

“[People who engage] in electricity theft are using taxpayers’ money; the moment they steal electricity, they steal from the economy.” Kadzinga noted.

Since its inception, Operation Khanyisa has received over 17 000 tip-offs on suspected electricity theft from the public.

To prevent a recurrence of illegal connections, Operation Khanyisa holds regular follow-up visits to the areas where an illegal connection was made.