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AfriForum has just obtained a court order from the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, compelling the SAPS to protect personnel of the Tshwane Metro during the removal of illegal power connections at the Sunway development in Hartbeespoort, North West.

The court order also gives the Madibeng Municipality 60 days in which to submit a plan with deadlines for the provision of electricity to Sunway residents.

The order comes after the SAPS refused to protect Tshwane Metro officers when they had to remove the illegal connections. These connections apparently caused damage to 22 transformers and resulted in a loss of R2 million in stolen electricity, while paying landowners from surrounding areas had to get along without electricity for months.

A settlement was reached after just two days. The SAPS and AfriForum’s legal teams quickly came to a settlement, but the Tshwane Metro’s legal team disagreed, presumably because of political interference.

“The Tshwane Metro felt that the alleged electricity thieves should be brought to trial, but their own by-laws make it clear that electricity thieves do not have to be informed prior to their arrest for this offence,” said Pieter Rautenbach, AfriForum’s General Advisor for Community Affairs. 

“The judge complimented AfriForum’s legal team for the manner in which we approached the case, and we are also overjoyed to have obtained an order compelling Madibeng to provide electricity to Sunway residents. We have already succeeded in repairing Madibeng’s sewer system.”

§  Please find the court order attached.

Issued by AfriForum