City Power plans to strengthen its corruption-busting initiatives as the utility realigns its operations with its revised business mandate.

Speaking at a media briefing in Johannesburg on Monday, City Power chairperson Reverend Frank Chikane noted that the multipronged anticorruption campaign ‘Operation Clean-Up’ sought to ramp up the utility’s fight against the scourge of corruption and misconduct by some of its officials (of which 15 had been identified), service providers, contractors and customers.

“The issues of corruption and fraud impact negatively on the delivery capacity of the business,” Chikane emphasised, highlighting that the anticorruption drive would focus on high-risk areas around metering, such as in applications for new meters, mapping of meters, relocation and reconnection of existing meters, as well as the procurement processes within City Power’s supply chain unit.

The area of metering was identified as a high-risk area where corrupt officials and service providers offer customers stolen meters that have been tampered with, swindle customers who submit smart meter applications and offer illegal reconnections to customers that have been disconnected as a result of nonpayment.

To date, City Power had lodged 851 cases with the South African Police Service and the prosecuting authorities relating to cable theft, malicious damage to property and meters, including domestic and large power users. 

About 782 arrests have been made with 274 cases that have already led to convictions. Chikane noted that about 707, or about 83% of the 851 cases, related to cable theft, while 8% of the cases related to metering issues.

The warrant of arrests for 36 cases were still pending, while about 67 cases were in the legal process. Of 44 cases that were remanded, about 25 cases were struck off the roll.  Additionally, 33 cases would be subject to further investigation, while 257 cases were withdrawn, City Power MD Sicelo Xulu pointed out, adding that City Power believed it was succeeding with the majority of the cases.

Xulu, however, stressed that the only solution to illegal connections was “to normalise installations”.

Chikane, nevertheless, urged customers to report fraud and corruption incidents to City Power and warned that customers who collude with officials and service providers to carry out these unauthorised transactions would be liable to criminal prosecution.

“Meter tampering and illegal connections are not victimless crimes; on the contrary, they constitute theft on a massive scale against the ratepayers of Johannesburg. These acts of misconduct amount to theft against the poor communities. Hundreds of millions of rands that could otherwise have been invested to refurbish ageing infrastructure and provide basic services to poor communities are being diverted by such acts to line the pockets of corrupt individuals,” Chikane lamented.

STRUCTURAL ALIGNMENT
The power utility further announced structural changes to its operations, which were aimed at improving performance and ensuring that the business was aligned to its new mandate of being an energy company.

This follows the announcement of the utility’s changed mandate by Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau’s in his State of the City Address last year, which would see it review its business model, increase its generating capacity and acquire electricity from renewable and alternative sources in addition to traditional avenues. He also mandated the utility to reduce its carbon footprint and ensure strategic use of a mix of technologies and energy sources.

The utility was mandated to achieve these objectives while maintaining business sustainability and without incurring additional costs to the consumer, Xulu explained.

To complement these changes, City Power has established the metering services business unit, which was responsible for end-to-end management of metering. The various functions within the business associated with meter management have been consolidated within this unit to allow for a “one-stop-shop” on all meter-related matters.

A focus of the department was also to ensure the meters were functioning and that all information was updated at the City of Johannesburg’s revenue department for customers to receive accurate billing.

“The realignment of City Power’s operational structure favourably positions the utility to realise its revised business mandate [and] is indicative of an organisation that is agile and responsive to the changing operating environment. This new structure will unlock value, improve customer service, streamline operations and enhance efficiencies.”

While Xulu acknowledged the utility’s recognition that, through the new metering unit, it could not capacitate itself to a point where the utility required no assistance, he highlighted that since rolling out smart meters, City Power was able to read more than 100 000 meters remotely.

Notwithstanding remote reading, three independent service providers had been contracted to manually read the balance of meters.

Focusing on the gains made in metering since the implemented strategies Xulu noted that, City Power achieved a 90% read rate for smart metering, which was “commendable”, while for time-of-use customers, City Power has achieved a 100% read rate. “These were some measures of progress,” Xulu concluded.