Karasburg councillors probed over ‘stolen’ electricity

TWO Karasburg Town Council officials are under police investigation for allegedly defrauding the local authority of more than N$1.5 million through long-term electricity theft. A report on the theft, compiled by town council technical manager Derek Basson, says a councillor serving on the management committee more than five years ago asked for the voluntary disconnection of electricity to his business premises. Basson says despite the disconnection, evidence obtained during an investigation revealed that electricity consumption continued at the same premises through allegedly tampering with the electricity meter and unlawfully obtaining electricity from the town council. “These individuals have since become local authority councillors at the Karaburg Town Council, claiming to stop corruption at the institution but they have made themselves guilty of illegal electricity usage at their business premises,” the report says. Basson says this has led to a loss of about N$1 million for the council. The second councillor has allegedly been consuming electricity without payment since 2023 as the electricity boxes were discontinued and taken off the reading list, the report states. Basson says no electricity payments were recorded on the conventional electricity meter and that the councillor reportedly initiated the conversion of the meter to prepaid electricity to create a trail of payments. The alleged loss is recorded as about N$560 000 in the investigation report. “Evidence further indicates both councillors attempted to conceal their unlawful conduct after assuming public office and that their attempts to convert were aimed at concealing years of unpaid and unlawfully consumed electricity,” the technical manager says. Karasburg mayor Fransiscus Skeyer has acknowledged the probe. He says the town council established a fully operational electricity department in April 2025 and appointed additional staff to strengthen the department. Following the establishment of the department, he says internal investigations were conducted into electricity consumption within the jurisdiction of the town council that revealed the irregularities. “In March this year when the report was handed to me, I opened a criminal case with the local police and gave my statement to report the alleged criminal conduct as the duly authorised representative of the town council. “But to this day, no arrests have been made by the police, neither further queries or investigations,” Skeyer says. He says he chose to lay criminal charges due to the amount of evidence related to the alleged power theft, and because he felt taking the matter to council would lead to the alleged criminal conduct being swept under the rug. “I am a member of the Landless People’s Movement, and the two councillors implicated in this matter are from other political parties. The politics of this council is full of strife and will lead to no consequences for the implicated individuals as the two remaining parties form the majority and the LPM will be in the minority,” he says. ||Kharas regional crime investigations coordinator Nicodemus Mbango says a case of fraud was lodged with the police’s commercial crimes unit. Mbango says the police have launched their own investigation into the matter, which is currently ongoing. “This is a fraud case, therefore we cannot arrest individuals while the investigation is not completed. There are multiple documents involved that the investigation team is reviewing. “These include documents from the council, financial statements, and so forth. But we are busy with it and will give feedback soon,” Mbango says. The post Karasburg councillors probed over ‘stolen’ electricity appeared first on The Namibian .