<\/p>\n
You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: Johannesburg\u2019s electricity crisis may now be feeding a criminal economy.<\/p>\n
A Daily Maverick investigation details allegations that infrastructure is now being deliberately sabotaged, components stolen, and desperate residents then pressured to pay private operators to have their power restored.<\/p>\n
Now is this simply opportunistic crime or an organised racket exploiting the collapse of City Power? Someone who\u2019s done excellent work in that respect, investigative journalist at the Daily Maverick, Anna Cox, welcome to you.<\/p>\n
So is the sense here that infrastructure is being deliberately broken so residents can be charged to have it repaired? If that\u2019s the case, it\u2019s outrageous.<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: Yes, Jeremy, it\u2019s quite serious. I think it\u2019s a bit of both. I think you\u2019re getting the odd person, like we got a video of somebody tearing a cable off a pole and then going to residents and asking for R3 000 to restore the electricity.<\/p>\n
Then, I think subcontractors are actually stealing breakers to go and fix people\u2019s outages from places where outages have not, in fact, happened.<\/p>\n
So they\u2019re making a quick buck on the side. These are contractors who know what they\u2019re doing because they steal the breakers, they\u2019re deliberate parts that they know what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: It would beg the question, Anna, how these contractors or syndicates would know which areas are vulnerable and which residents may be willing to pay up.<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: City Power has got an open website as to where the outages are, so it\u2019s fairly easy to access. Then, of course, if you just drive around at night, you can see the areas where the outages are happening.<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: Who are the people then allegedly collecting the money from the residents? Have you done any work in that respect?<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: Well, it\u2019s the contractors or so-called City Power officials. Again, the police can\u2019t investigate because unless they\u2019re caught doing it, it\u2019s very difficult to prosecute.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
But residents are being approached by people who are saying they\u2019re City Power officials \u2013 whether they are or not is another story \u2013 or they say they\u2019re contractors to City Power.<\/p>\n
Again, they carry City Power badges, so it\u2019s very difficult to prove who is real and who\u2019s not real. So that\u2019s where the residents are in a dilemma.<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: What are people paying for then, Anna? Is it an illegal connection? Would it be a faster repair or simply, as that video that you referenced showed, the restoration of a service that they already fund?<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: It\u2019s usually a restoration because people are desperate, completely desperate. I\u2019m currently sitting without power for four days, and I\u2019m on the verge that I would actually like to pay somebody to restore my electricity.<\/p>\n
The people are desperate and these contractors or fake City Power officials are capitalising on that and asking residents for up to R1 500 to restore power.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve got a recording, which we are busy cleaning up, and the guy is offering to pay R500, and this contractor is saying no, he wants R1 200 because he needs to go and get a breaker, he said.<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: What would happen to residents or communities who say, no, enough is enough and refuse to pay? Has that happened, do you know?<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: Yes. Then you sit without electricity until the city at its own time decides to come and fix the fault.<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: So it\u2019s understandable, then, that residents would approach private operators instead of reporting demands to the police. Because, as you\u2019ve just referenced, you simply want to switch the light on or put a kettle on.<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: Correct. You\u2019re saving money, ultimately. You\u2019re not losing stuff from your fridge and you\u2019re desperate, you want a hot bath, and you say, here\u2019s R1 500, please reconnect me.<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: Anna, how widespread do you think this practice is across Johannesburg, which is seemingly on its knees in this respect anyway?<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: It\u2019s increasing. I\u2019m getting daily complaints about this. It\u2019s right across Joburg, from the eastern suburbs to the northern suburbs to Alexandra to the areas where it is supplied by City Power. It\u2019s very common and it\u2019s growing because it\u2019s an easy target.<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: And as that video shows, quite brazen.<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: Absolutely. That was daylight. There are cameras around and they don\u2019t seem to care.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: Anna Cox, when you put this to City Power and the specific evidence and clearer evidence, you cannot get a better evidence than from the video that we that we\u2019ve seen and that was posted on the Daily Maverick website, what sort of response do you get?<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: They throw their hands up and say, give us evidence, tell us the time and place, and then you\u2019ve got to file a police report.<\/p>\n
Then they\u2019ve got to go and investigate. It\u2019s going to take months to investigate. Unless there is absolute evidence, you don\u2019t know who the guy is. He\u2019s somebody off the street. How are you going to prove who he is?<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: So to the best of your knowledge, disciplinary proceedings, contract cancellations, arrests, you don\u2019t know whether that has happened or not.<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: It has not happened, no, because nobody is prepared to come forward with any evidence. They\u2019re obviously scared because if somebody comes to try and bribe you, they know where you live.<\/p>\n
Residents are petrified. They\u2019re not going to go and say they\u2019ve paid a bribe to so-and-so because they will become targets.<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: It\u2019s patently obvious that City Power\u2019s operational collapse is now creating a viable market in which these criminals thrive.<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: Correct. As I said, it all boils down to the desperation of residents, who are sitting without power. We\u2019ve had people reporting power outages for up to a month.<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: Anna, what will need to change then to break the cycle of sabotage?<\/p>\n
ANNA COX: Well, we are back to the question of money, which the city doesn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n
They need to obviously invest a lot of money in improving infrastructure and maintaining it, which they haven\u2019t done for years.<\/p>\n
Once the infrastructure is up and going, obviously things should work normally.<\/p>\n
JEREMY MAGGS: Anna Cox, investigative journalist at the Daily Maverick, thank you very much indeed. It really is a stark picture of what is happening in the city of Johannesburg. Appreciate your time today, thank you.<\/p>\n
#Power #restoration #racket #preys #desperate #Joburg #residents<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here. JEREMY MAGGS: Johannesburg\u2019s electricity crisis…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[8638,1971,668,17237,17236,1972,6665],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}