City Power clamps down on Joburg’s hijacked buildings to curb financial losses and safety risks

City Power launched a targeted joint operation against hijacked buildings across the Johannesburg inner city, aiming to curb widespread electricity theft, address critical safety hazards and recover millions in unpaid municipal debt.

The crackdown follows a series of disastrous incidents in the inner city, including the tragic fire at the Usindiso building, highlighting the dangers posed by poorly monitor and illegally occupied structures.

In many of these hijacked buildings, occupants often erect makeshift shacks and illegal electrical connections, creating potentially life-threatening conditions.

“These are some of the buildings where we’ve had problems of electricity theft, of illegal connections, but for us, it’s also not just about revenue collection, it’s actually about the safety of this building,” said City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena.

“The catastrophic results of this kind of buildings is really huge, and that’s why at City Power we basically take it upon ourselves to start a program where we are targeting these bad buildings.”

– Millions owed in unpaid utility debt –

The power utility’s recent operations targeted five properties situated along a single street in Doornfontein.

Collectively, the buildings owe City Power close to R5 million, with one property accounting for roughly R2 million of the outstanding debt.

But City Power says the problem extends well beyond these five properties.

Its desktop analysis has identified at least 108 bad buildings across the inner city, with a combined debt of approximately R115 million.

Non-payment, electricity theft, and illegal connections are estimated to cost the utility around R13 billion annually, placing further pressure on its ability to maintain infrastructure and sustain operations.

“Electricity theft is rife,” Mangena said.

“We’re losing a whole lot of money, about R13 billion annually, that is basically lost and owed to City Power. So that is a lot of money that we really need to ensure that we sustain the operations.”

– Complete infrastructure removal –

Addressing concerns about delayed disconnections, Mangena says City Power follows formal administrative procedures, before cutting off electricity.

This includes sending multiple warning letters, making phone calls, and attempting physical visits to properties.

However, in many hijacked properties, legitimate owners cannot be traced.

When warnings and pre-termination notices go unanswered, City Power joins forces with the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) and Building Control to permanently remove its infrastructure and prevent illegal re-connections.

“With those that we have realized that there is no owner coming out, we have actually started removing our infrastructure, meaning substations and also the feeder boards and cables so that there is no trace of City Power electricity network in those buildings,” Mangena said.

– Underground vandalism and grid instability –

Compounding the crisis of hijacked buildings, City Power is also battling deliberate vandalism of its electricity network. Underground cable theft recently triggered severe fires across a network of interconnected inner-city substations, including Fordsburg, Bree, Central, and Selby.

Investigators recovered hacksaws, screwdrivers, and specialized cutting tools underground, which City Power says points to deliberate tampering.

To prevent residents from being in the dark for up to three months while extensive repairs are carried out at the Central Substation, City Power has rerouted network loads, including large portions of Marshalltown, to the Selby substation.

The severity of these infrastructure attacks has led City Power leadership to appeal directly to national and provincial law enforcement for assistance.

“Our CEO wrote to the National Police Commissioner and Provincial Police Commissioner, really sounding an SOS call to the police to say, we really need your assistance because we are under siege as City Power,” Mangena said.

“Our job is not really to arrest and protect and do the criminal issues. Our job is to keep the lights on. But recently, we find ourselves basically diverting some of these resources to deal with security issues.”

The Inner City remains an important area of focus for City Power due to the scale and complexity of electricity service delivery challenges in the area. The entity will continue working alongside relevant City of Johannesburg departments and other stakeholders to address… pic.twitter.com/MjK5COFzke

— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) September 23, 2026

Written by: Lebohang Ndashe