A farmer in the Free State region of Steunmekaar and Petrusburg stands accused of costing Eskom a loss worth R1.9 million through alleged tampering with meters and illegal connections.
The suspect, Jan Albert van der Merwe (46), had his case postponed to 31 October during his first appearance in the Bloemfontein Regional Court yesterday, 14 September.
He is facing 17 charges of fraud, corruption, malicious damage to property, contravention of Section 3 of the Criminal Matters Amendment Act 18 of 2015, and damage to essential infrastructure.
The criminal case against Van der Merwe followed an investigation by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), or Hawks, in Bloemfontein.
Lt Col. Zweli Mohobeleli, provincial spokesperson of the Hawks, said an Eskom audit revealed tampering with electricity meters on several premises and illegal connections linked the suspect.
“The identified meters were collected and sent to a laboratory for confirmation. The results came back positive, thus Eskom was prejudiced and suffered a loss of R1,9 million. The illegal connections, which were aimed at reducing electricity costs, are alleged to have occurred in 2016,” said Mohobeleli.
He said the Hawks’ Serious Corruption Investigation unit and Eskom investigators immediately started probing the matter upon the discovery of tampered meters and illegal connections by the farmer Van der Merwe.
In 2018 and 2020 two farmers in the province were sentenced and fined after they were found guilty of a similar offence.
The culprits are Gerhard Ferreira from Bothaville and Willem Christiaan Venter of Petrusburg. In 2018 Ferreira was ordered to reimburse Eskom with R921 830,88’s worth of losses incurred through the tampering of meters, and fined an additional R229 000. In 2020 Venter was ordered to pay Eskom R750 000 in reimbursement.
