At a time of severe rolling blackouts and sky-high electricity prices, a municipal worker from Piketberg was busted by the Hawks for stealing electricity worth over R1 million.
Pieter Jacobus Adams, 56, was arrested on Tuesday after a lengthy investigation into the issuing of ‘free’ electricity tokens while working as the chief clerk at the Bergrivier Municipality.
Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani says the suspect faces over 400 charges of fraud for allegedly marking himself as indigent so he could get free krag from the municipality, and even resorted to selling the free tokens to mense.
“It is alleged that on September 19, 2019, through a preliminary investigation, it was discovered that the prepaid electricity meter of the accused was replaced and changed to an indigent tariff and the token to effect the said change was issued by the accused himself,” Hani adds.
She explains that an internal investigation was conducted and it was found that from March 2016 to September 2019, Adams issued free electricity tokens on prepaid meters that were not replaced and that he further gave monthly tokens to those same households.
“It was also further detected that free electricity tokens were issued on a monthly basis in respect of the same prepaid meters and that free electricity tokens were issued outside normal office hours and within normal office hours,” Hani says.
“It was found that a number of prepaid metres had significant amounts of electricity units loaded on them in circumstances when the customers had not bought electricity from the municipality for a long time, and therefore ought to have had few units if any at all.”
Hani further explains that in total, Adams allegedly stole over 700 000 units valued at R1.3m and would receive cash from his customers for stealing krag.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila says Adams made his first court appearance on Wednesday and was granted R500 bail.
“He appeared at the Piketberg Magistrate’s Court, following a warrant of arrest issued for him to appear.
“He was released on bail and was ordered to appear at the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, where he will apply for legal aid to represent him,” he adds.
The matter was postponed to March 24.