Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s publicly owned electricity company, EDM, has dismantled so far this year over 50 clandestine electricity connections in Ricathla and Magawanine neighbourhoods in Marracuene district, in Maputo province, according to a report in the Maputo daily “Noticias”.
The illegal connections were deactivated after an inspection drive carried out by EDM teams, and Sidonio Mundlovo, head of the Customer Care Service in the KaGuava office in Marracuene, said that the irregular connections are recurrent in most of the neighbourhoods not yet covered by electrification as well as those seen as unsuitable for habitation.
Mundlovo pointed out that after the removal of the illicit cables, EDM is seeking to extend power access to these areas, in a bid to avert scenarios that huge losses to the company.
“We have been suffering great damage, because the material they use is, in most cases, stolen from EDM,” he said, adding that the recently seized material is worth more than 300,000 meticais (4,690 US dollars, at the current exchange rate).
He disclosed that two staff members from other EDM delegations are facing disciplinary proceedings and one of them has been expelled from the company for his involvement in the scheme of fraudulent connections.
In 2021, unknown people vandalised 14 transformer posts in several areas, where the criminals stole copper cables. One of the cases was recorded in Samora Machel Neighbourhood, along the country’s main north-south highway (EN1), leaving many consumers plunged into darkness.
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