Copperleaf Golf Estate disputes electricity disconnected at 600 homes

Copperleaf Golf and Country Estate in Centurion has labelled as false the City of Tshwane’s (CoT’s) claims that more than 600 homes in the estate were disconnected due to electricity non-payments and illegal connections.

City spokesperson Lindela Mashigo countered by stating that “the [revenue-collection campaign] campaign was successful” and that it was aimed at recovering accumulated debt of R16 million at Copperleaf.

Read: Mangaung and Ekurhuleni battling to pay Eskom [5 Sep 2022]

Estate’s version

Phineas Thosago, GM of the estate, said on Wednesday that after a full-day operation at the estate, the city’s functional head official together with the project leader of the operation confirmed that:

• None of the houses assessed during the operation were found to have illegal electricity connections and there was no evidence of 600 homes in the estate having illegal connections;

• The electricity at only 98 of the 1 127 stands in the estate, including vacant stands, houses under construction and completed homes, was disconnected due to municipal rates charges owing to the municipality; and

• A total of 20 homes were converted to new smart meters.

Thosago claimed the city has created the wrong impression that Copperleaf residents are stealing electricity.

“This has caused huge reputational damage to Copperleaf,” he said.

Thosago further claimed that some city officials have already apologised for the miscommunication.

“I have got an email that apologises for some of those [media] reports and that it was a bona fide error but it [the reporting] is out there,” said Thosago.

City’s version

Mashigo however said the city’s campaign involved 589 actions at Copperleaf, resulting in:

• Tampering found with 30 meters;

• Electricity disconnected at 96 homes whose accounts are in arrears;

• Water restrictions implemented at 156 stands due to account arrears;

• 28 meters being replaced with pre-paid meters; and

• 279 meters found to be in good condition.

Mashigo said the campaign conducted at Copperleaf forms part of the city’s Amnesty Project, a citywide initiative with a limited lifespan of two months from 1 August to 30 September to recover lost revenue due to tampering.

He said the city uncovered the problems at Copperleaf through the #TshwaneYaTima revenue-collection campaign.

“We experienced low payment responses, thus triggering an initiative to recover or collect monies owed to the city.”

Mashigo said the city is not necessarily targeting the Copperleaf Body Corporate but is dealing with individual property owners who happen to be the city’s customers.

“Reference is made to Section 26 (1) of the Electricity Supply bylaw. In cases where tampering [and] interference has resulted in the accuracy of the metering installation being compromised, the municipality has the right to rectify the consumer’s account to include circuit breaker, connection and quota charges,” he said.

Mashigo said homeowners who believe they have been incorrectly billed can engage with the municipality.

Important point missed, says estate

However, Thosago said the executive management of Copperleaf met with the officials from the city on Tuesday before their operation began to outline the kind of assessment they would be conducting and the proof they would be seeking for any illegal connections.

He said the city indicated during this discussion that it has been assessing the monthly electricity consumption of individual households and residents at Copperleaf in relation to the normal average they are usually billed.

Thosago said the city from the start missed a critically important point during its data collection and analysis – the increase in alternative energy sources installed by residents of Copperleaf.

“Due to continuous cable theft, load shedding and continuous outages specifically in the Copperleaf area, one in every three households at Copperleaf has invested in the installation of alternative power sources, such as solar energy, inverters, lithium ion and gel batteries, gas-powered energy, generators [and so on].

“When households invest in these alternative energy sources, they use little or no power supplied by the CoT, hence the decrease in the monthly CoT bill,” he said.

“What is more damaging to the beautiful estate of Copperleaf is that wrong information was sent out into different media platforms alleging that 600 homes at Copperleaf have illegally connected power from the CoT.

“We would like to reiterate this information is not correct, not true and there was no evidence of 600 homes connected illegally at Copperleaf,” he said.

Core issue: money owed to Eskom

The city’s Amnesty Project and revenue-collection drive was initiated against the backdrop of the city owing Eskom more than R1 billion.

Mashigo confirmed that on Tuesday the city owed Eskom R1 billion, but made a payment of R150 million on Wednesday and therefore currently owes Eskom about R850 million.

He also provided a list of daily payments made by the city to Eskom from 17 August to 5 September totalling more than R638 million.

These daily weekday payments ranged between R8 million and R90 million each.

Luister na Ryk van Niekerk se onderhoud met altwee partye: