Wednesday, 29
April 2020: A couple living in Hartbeespoort was arrested
on Friday, 24 April 2020 for the illegal sale of Eskom pre-paid electricity
vouchers. The arrest took place at their rented house situated in a luxurious
estate in Hartbeespoort, after intensive investigations by members of the
Pretoria Serious Organised Crime Investigations unit supported by the Eskom
Internal Investigations Department. The arrest followed the issuing of an
arrest warrant which was duly executed.
According to
Peter Malitsha, Eskom’s Senior Manager responsible for internal
investigations, “the ongoing investigations by the Pretoria Serious Organised
Crime Investigations unit were triggered by an arrest that was made in December
2018, where two illegal credit dispensing units (CDUs) were recovered and
seized in another rented house located in an opulent estate in Pretoria East.”
“The suspects
are not registered Eskom vendors, yet they issued vouchers originated from
stolen Eskom CDUs. In addition, the suspects were found in possession of
fraudulent Disaster Management Act (DMA) travelling permits, R20 000.00
cash and pre-paid electricity vouchers which were immediately confiscated by
the investigation team,” Malitsha added.
This event led
to the arrest of a third suspect in Kempton Park, who is allegedly known to be
the originator of the fraudulent travelling permits which enabled the suspected
couple to travel for their illegal business of selling Eskom pre-paid vouchers.
According to
Malitsha, the illegal buying and selling of pre-paid electricity vouchers is
one of the forms of electricity theft which leads to the country’s economic
down-turn, job losses, spikes in energy tariffs, and pressurises the taxpayer’s
pocket and those who are legal electricity buyers.
As Eskom, we
would like to thank the SAPS and our Eskom Internal Investigation team for
making this operation a success.
We continue to
urge all South Africans to help combat the illegal buying and selling of
pre-paid electricity vouchers and other forms of electricity and infrastructure
theft by remaining legal. Customers can anonymously report illegal activities
to the toll free Eskom reporting line:
0800 112 722.