13 March 2026
Eskom is suffering annual losses of R6 billion in KwaZulu-Natal, primarily because 50% of its 1.2 million provincial customers are engaging in electricity theft. This theft is often facilitated by material that is itself stolen from Eskom.
These figures might be higher as electricity is also stolen from various provincial municipalities.
The high rate of electricity theft in the province was revealed on Thursday when the power utility’s technicians, accompanied by heavily armed private security officers, paid an unexpected visit to an informal suburb, Hardingsdale Farm, in Pietermaritzburg, to confiscate material used by the residents to illegally connect electricity to their homes.
“The revenue that we are not about to collect because of losses in KwaZulu-Natal is R6 billion per year. Therefore, how can we stay afloat?
“Losses that we suffer are close to 50% of the customers that we have, but there are areas where we have losses that are over 70% of the revenue that we do not collect,” said Eskom’s Senior Manager for Customer Services, Dadewabo Mbhele.
Mbhele said there were six transformers that were identified as having been stolen from Eskom, but only five were recovered. She said others that were also confiscated could not be linked to Eskom.
“Those people might have been informed that Eskom was coming, and they removed some of the transformers before we arrived to recover six Eskom transformers, but we only got five. Those transformers, conductors, and electricity poles were stolen from Eskom,” she said.
Responding to parliamentary questions in 2024, the late Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan stated that Eskom had, in the 2022/23 financial year, lost R18,953,668.45 through the theft of transformers.
Mbhele said the equipment would be used to open cases of theft with the police, adding that the suspects were expected to be identified and arrested.
“That is why we have to take the evidence, and the police were taking photos before we took the equipment.”
She said in the province, there is no municipality without electricity theft.
Source: IOL
