21/08/2024
I primarily use Facebook to amuse myself and just get silly. But this post is neither, in fact I’m going to put it on my twitter, send to daily dispatch and the electricity “minister” whatever that is. Electricity Minister badge doesn’t make sense, what is that, monitoring electrons and protons to see if they don’t get destructed from conventional current flow, making sure AC is always AC and doesn’t mess with DC, what the hell is an electricity minister, I wonder? As far as I can understand an Electricity Minister is a surge arrestor or a transformer, an Electrical Component! can't be a person... anyway..
The people who are supposed to make decisions to keep our country productive, stable and efficient, from the local ward councillor with no matric, to Cyril Ramaphosa thinks we as citizens who work for a living, even create employment at times are dumb. I have seen this in many respects and decisions of RSA government. This time around I want to focus on one aspect that I know a little about. Electricity Supply System, be it Eskom directly or your local Municipality.
If you want to electrify your house in KSD municipality, where I live, you need a private electrician to inspect your house’s Electrical Installation and approve if it complies with government regulation, then issues a certificate of compliance (COC). For a township house this can range from R1000 – R1500 depending on your electrician. R1000 gone, at least you have the confidence that your house won’t burn to the ground, and your insurance company will payout should you have any problems due to an electrical fault. That’s a once off payment.
This payment of +/- R1500 is necessary, since anyone who has a right to issue COC’s have been approved by the National Chief Inspector after studying and passing required regulations and assessment tests in accordance with SANS10142 standards. That’s a non-negotiable fee.
The owner of the property must then go to the local supplier to apply for a meter, this is where the government start to rip you off. In KSD they send their own technicians to do the same test (inspection fee, they call it) at an additional R750 rands. This is the first rip off to the consumer because the test has already been done by the qualified electrician who issued your COC. Unless your local municipality suggests that The Office of the Chief Inspector for Electrical Installations is incompetent and allows anyone to issue COCs.
Then you have to “buy” a meter box that will connect you to the municipality electricity grid. This is about R3,500. This is not clear whether this meter box is your or not in reality. I say this because, when I buy a car, it’s mine no doubt, if I want to put mags on it or optimise it, it’s up to me as long as it is road worth, I paid for it, it’s my property. But with these meters it’s not the same, the local municipality owns it, because you cannot do anything to it, for instance fix the LCD display if it goes wrong or tighten a lose connection in it, no! you can’t touch it, even though you bought it. If you temper or bypass the meter it will visually show on the display, and your units will keep raising. Now that is stealing but has nothing to do with ownership of the meter. To place a lock in it by means of a tag or some special wire is illegal if the meter is really yours.
I conclude it to you that, paying for the meter box is a second rip off from the government. This is another R3500 rip off. We are looking at R4250 rip off in townships and suburban areas. I rural arears they go further ripping off the desperate user, needing electricity by adding an additional fee for the cable and infrastructure connecting to the nearest point of electrical grid. For one user in Zimbane AA, they billed her R9000 for the cable. The amount for the cable was correct, but the person paying for it was incorrect, the suppler is supposed to bring the grid to your service box attached to the wall of your house.
I was shocked when I saw on the news that in the city of Johannesburg is demanding a monthly R200 rental fee, for owning a meter box, that is R2400 per year, just for having a meter box in your house! You have not yet bought any electricity units yet! Even a disk for your car doesn’t cost that much per year.
What prompted me to write this article is what I saw this morning on the news, in East London they are starting this ridiculous practice. If you wonder how the construction mafia works, look no further than the government electricity supply system. They are the legalised construction mafia.
