Almost 1000 illegal electricity connections were detected by the Keetmanshoop Electricity Department, despite an amnesty issued last year to those who have been bypassing electricity meters.

The Keetmanshoop municipality has an active customer base of about six thousand pre-paid electricity meters, which collectively contribute about N$90 million to its coffers annually.

Despite recording an increase in revenue collection from the distribution and supply of electricity, the municipality continues to record losses due to illegal electricity connections.

"In a town like Keetmanshoop, where we only have 6000 pre-paid meters, about 1000 meters are bypassed. That is what the system detects. Now we have enhanced our system as of last week. We upgraded our system to STS 6, so now we are in a better position to detect more bypasses as they come," said Lee Mwemba, ICT Specialist at the Keetmanshoop Municipality.

To address this, the municipality launched its Token Identifier Rollover Project aimed at resetting the Token Identifier counter in electricity pre-paid meters before its rollover to zero value in 2024.

"In simple terms, what it means is that the token system will run out of numbers come 2024. To prevent this, the municipality has embarked on a process to reset the pre-paid meters to zero so that they can accept new tokens after the base date. What we require from the residents of Keetmanshoop is to allow the technical teams that will be deployed in Keetmanshoop entry into their houses to visit their pre-paid meters and then enter the key change tokens," said Khoetage Dax, Acting Senior Executive at the Keetmanshoop Electricity Business Unit.

The Keetmanshoop municipality says that residents who bypass electricity meters will be fined N$6,000 for first-time offences, N$12,00 for second-time offences, and N$16,000 or two years of jail time for third-time offences.