Under the so called watchful eyes of ANC members, Cllr Naeem Patel and area CPF co-ordinator, Shaheen Wahab, the once pride of the community, Laudium/Erasmia, is slowly but surely becoming an area plagued by crime and grime, with service delivery down to its lowest.
As politicians of the ANC-led Tshwane Council and the ANC-led Government are increasingly implicated in corruption or poor service delivery, it is worrisome that money meant to be spent on uplifting communities, is being ‘eaten up’ by corrupt politicians.
This follows yet again complaints from residents regarding corruption or improper activity by Council officials, with the knowledge of Cllr Patel, resulting in local residents forced to fork out more money for basic services. Several residents of White Blocks told the Laudium Sun that they are facing immense pressure from the City of Tshwane to pay bribes for electricity
reconnection. Many residents allege that Municipal workers tampered with their meter boxes, then falsely blamed them, forcing the residents to then pay exorbitant amounts to have their power restored.
Najma Teladia, a resident of Primrose Street in Laudium, spoke to the Laudium Sun, “Recently on a Monday, two women seemingly Council officials, came and opened our meter box with a key. When we asked what they were doing, they said they were installing someone’s prepaid meter. A week later, two men and another woman returned and used a grinder to open the box. When we questioned them, they said that they were from the Council and were just checking the meters. Shortly afterward, our electricity went off, mine and my neighbours. When we contacted the Council, they claimed that the meter box had been ‘tampered with’ and would be removed. I then went to the Municipal office in Laudium and showed them a photo of the people who were tampering. I explained to them that we don’t even have a key to access the meter box and that we had nothing to do with the tampering. I use less electricity now, because I have an inverter at home. I spoke to Naeem Patel about our problem, but he rudely questioned me, asking if a ‘fat lady’ was at the scene of the meter box. I told him I didn’t know, I only saw the footage from our CCTV camera. Despite this, I was forced to pay R30,500 to reconnect the power. I paid it on Tuesday and the electricity was restored on Wednesday.”
Najma says she provided CCTV video footage showing the actual individuals tampering with the box, but Naeem refused to review it.
She added, “Naeem was dismissive, rude, and completely unwilling to help. He told me that the matter had gone to the Revenue Department and that there was nothing he or I could do about it. Then on a Wednesday, the City of Tshwane (CoT) van arrived, but workers claimed they couldn’t open the meter box due to a missing key. The following day, a technician came and used a grinder to open it, again raising questions about how residents could have tampered with a box they cannot even access. “The box is tamper-proof. We don’t have a key. Yet, we were accused and financially penalized. Even a lady at the Council admitted that the tampering was likely done by a professional.”
On a Thursday night, my husband received a WhatsApp message from someone claiming to be from CoT. He demanded R5,000 to reconnect our power, even though it had already been restored. This was clearly an extortion attempt from someone inside the Council or connected to the system. We have screenshots of the WhatsApp conversation, the sender’s photo and contact details, photos of the tampered box and official CoT documentation, all showing that we were wrongly accused and financially exploited. Yet Cllr Naeem Patel refuses to help us. We are requesting a formal investigation into: Who actually tampered with the box? Why the blame was placed on us and who tried to extort money from us after the power was restored? We have now approached Lushika Mooloo of the Concerned Residents Forum to assist us, as Naeem seemingly is not interested in helping the poor residents.”
Yugan Reddy, also of Primrose Street, shared a similar story with Laudium Sun, “On Monday, last month, July 21, two unidentified men and one woman came and used a grinder to open our tamper-proof meter box. They claimed they were installing another meter, but they removed both my and my neighbor’s meters. When we confronted them, they said the meters were ‘breached’ and advised us to speak to the Municipality.”
At the CoT office the next day, Yugan was shown photos of his meter. Officials claimed it showed signs of tampering, but even a consultant admitted the meter type is highly secure and only about 20 people in the system are trained to detect such tampering. “I told them this house belongs to my grandmother, who is 86 and receives 100 free units under the pensioner program. My wife and I only recently purchased the home in 2025 and started using electricity three months ago. We have records to show our usage is legitimate and consistent. Yet, the power remains disconnected. Then, on July 23, I received a suspicious WhatsApp message from a man claiming to offer illegal electricity top-ups for R5,500. When I refused the offer and reported the number to the Centurion CoT office in Block H, staff said they didn’t recognize the individual and that it could take a long time to investigate the matter due to the amount of money involved.”