Eskom praises convictions for electricity theft

Last Monday the Palm Ridge Regional Court ruled in favour of Eskom‚ handing down a guilty verdict in the case of the four accused‚ including a mother and son duo – aged 56 and 23 respectively.

The four‚ who collectively faced over 36‚000 charges related to electricity theft‚ were found guilty on 16‚451 counts.

The two main suspects‚ Mafuthi Chiliza and her son Nqobile Chiliza from De Deur‚ south of Gauteng‚ were arrested in December 2012 when they were found in possession of a stolen Credit Dispensing Unit (CDU)‚ a machine belonging to Eskom that prints out prepaid electricity vouchers.

Also recovered from the Chiliza’s premises was a hard drive belonging to another stolen CDU machine‚ numerous customer lists‚ including electricity meter numbers‚ 996 illegal prepaid electricity vouchers of varying value as well as other equipment used for printing prepaid electricity vouchers.

The two other suspects‚ who were also found in possession of customer lists‚ meter numbers and illegal prepaid vouchers‚ were linked to Mafuthi Chiliza‚ whom the court established was the ring leader of a syndicate that sold illegal prepaid electricity vouchers‚ through records found on their mobile phones.

Telephone records also linked Chiliza to Andile Mgadi who was also arrested for the illegal possession of a CDU machine but was murdered during the trial.

The victory was described as a great coup by Richard De Nobrega‚ senior adviser for Eskom Security Investigations‚ who also testified at the trial.

“Eskom loses billions each year to electricity theft‚” said De Nobrega during his testimony. “But Eskom or the state is not the only victim of this crime. To recover the money that is lost by the power utility due to electricity theft‚ including illegal connections‚ meter tampering and bypassing and the selling of illegal prepaid vouchers‚ Eskom is forced to increase the price of electricity‚ which ultimately affects legal electricity users in the form of increased tariffs.”

Following the guilty verdict‚ the state applied for an investigation into how the four accused benefited from their illegal activity‚ which could lead to the seizure of assets including real estate and vehicles.

Sentencing has been scheduled for the 3rd of February 2017.