The R7.2 billion reason some South Africans still live in darkness

Rampant electricity theft, meter bypassing, and illegal connections have been singled out as the major reasons why some areas of South Africa still experience load reduction.

This was revealed by the Minister of Electricity and Energy, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, in his response to a recent parliamentary Q&A.

MK Party MP Sihle Ngubane had asked the minister whether he now found his previous notion that load-shedding was a thing of South Africa’s past incorrect, given the continued prevalence of electricity outages in parts of the country.

In contrast to load-shedding, which was a deliberate shutdown of electricity due to insufficient supply, load reduction has been touted by Eskom as a way to safeguard critical energy infrastructure.

“Although the power system remains stable and generation capacity continues to exceed demand, illegal connections and meter tampering persist in certain localised areas,” Ramokgopa said.

“This drives infrastructure damage and poses serious safety risks. Eskom continues to implement load reduction as a temporary, targeted measure in high-risk areas to protect both the communities and the electricity network.”

Criminal conduct was reported to have cost Eskom an estimated R7.2 billion during its 2024/25 financial year alone, an increase of approximately 7.46% from the previous year.

This included ghost vending, which is the syndicated generation and sale of unauthorised and illegal electricity tokens carried out by South Africa’s various criminal networks.

Electricity theft was estimated at around 14.9 TWh of electricity in 2025, equivalent to almost 8% of Eskom’s electricity sales for the year and a 7.19% increase from 2024.

Eskom said it aims to completely eliminate load reduction by 2027 through the installation of smart meters across the country, which it claims will help reduce energy theft.

As of its latest system update on 5 June, Eskom said 295,465 smart meters had been installed on load reduction feeders, benefiting 714,513 customers or 42% of its customer target.

Higher tariffs drive energy theft

Energy expert Chris Yelland has previously warned that Eskom’s exorbitant electricity tariff increases are directly responsible for an increase in energy theft.

In March, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) approved an 8.76% tariff increase from 1 April 2026, with an additional tariff increase of 8.83% set for 2027.

These tariff increases were initially supposed to be just 5.36% for 2026 and 6.19% for 2027, and follow multiple consecutive years of double-digit tariff increases.

NERSA agreed to the almost 9% increases to allow Eskom to recover a R54.7 billion shortfall over three years, due to accounting errors on NERSA’s part in calculating Eskom’s allowable revenue.

“There are two factors at play,” Yelland said. “First of all, theft and non-payment increase by consumers and by municipalities alike. So, Eskom’s arrears are likely to grow.”

“It just means that people either start shutting down or moving to alternative energy suppliers, or going off the grid completely.”

Eskom has reported significant declines in electricity demand in recent months, as more South Africans turn to illegal connections or alternative power sources such as solar.

Alongside this, the utility’s municipal debt pool continues to grow, reportedly reaching over R111 billion as of May 2026.

Yelland also pointed to NERSA’s classification of technical and non-technical losses as concerning, given how these losses are recovered through tariff increases.

While NERSA estimated technical losses at around 12%, Yelland said it was likely closer to just 5%, with the other 7% accounting for non-technical losses such as theft and non-payment.

“By misclassifying non-technical losses as technical losses, the model effectively allows municipalities to recover the cost of electricity theft and non-payment from paying customers,” Yelland explained.

“The model then adds the cost of these assumed technical losses back into bulk energy costs, resulting in double-charging. This directly inflates approved tariffs and places an unjust burden on compliant customers.”