Eskom chairman Mteto Nyati has warned that South Africa has slid quietly into lawlessness, with offences from jumped traffic lights to illegal electricity connections increasingly treated as normal. He links the shift to an overcorrection from apartheid era controls, but says no country succeeds on a foundation of chaos. His comments coincide with Eskom’s own drive against illegal connections: the utility says it has freed nearly 1.2 million households from load reduction, about 70% of its target, with smart meters rolled out to catch bypasses ahead of a March 2027 deadline.
By Myles Illidge
Chair of Eskom’s board of directors, Mteto Nyati, has criticised South Africa’s quiet slide into lawlessness, with many illegal activities being accepted as a part of daily life.
In a post on Twitter/X, Nyati described the situation as a clear breakdown in law and order in the country, which is presented as freedom.
“In South Africa, we have watched a quiet but relentless slide into lawlessness. Jumping traffic lights has become commonplace. Driving under the influence is often treated lightly,” he said.
“Pedestrians cross roads with little regard for the danger. Illegal electricity connections are no longer treated as serious offences. They are simply accepted as a part of daily life.”
Nyati added that prisoners in the country somehow manage to keep smartphones, and driving without a licence is widespread, adding that the list of offences could go on forever.
“On the surface, the relaxation of rules is understandable. For decades, harsh and often humiliating laws targeted black South Africans in particular,” Nyati said.
“So society swung from one extreme to the other, from rigid control to an ‘anything goes’ environment. In many ways, this is presented as freedom.”
He explained that some South Africans may view this slide into lawlessness as the freedom that was denied to the majority for many years.
“We even open our borders to illegal immigration with the argument: ‘they took us in when we were running from the apartheid police,” Nyati said.
The Eskom chair said the current confused state is not progressive and is instead setting South Africa backwards.
“I know of no country that has ever become successful on a foundation of chaos. We urgently need to strike the right balance,” he said.
“One that honours our painful history without using it as a permanent excuse to abandon the very rules that keep a society from falling apart.”
Illegal connections are accepted as a part of daily life
Nyati’s statement that illegal electricity connections were no longer treated as serious offences but had become accepted as a part of daily life is partly the state-owned power utility’s own doing.
Eskom’s debt has forced the power utility to implement significant annual electricity tariff increases, making electricity unaffordable for many of the country’s poorer residents.
As a result, many resorted to bypassing electricity meters, making illegal connections, or buying electricity tokens from illegal or ghost vendors.
However, Eskom has embarked on a project designed to eliminate illegal connections and eradicate load reduction in South Africa.
Load reduction is a demand-reduction mechanism implemented in regions with high levels of illegal connections to prevent infrastructure overload.
In September 2025, electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and Eskom announced the Load Reduction Elimination strategy, which aims to eradicate the power cuts by March 2027.
This will be achieved through an aggressive rollout of smart meters in regions believed to have many illegal connections.
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The smart meters, which can detect anomalies, track illegal bypasses, and isolate non-paying customers, replace traditional electricity meters.
In September 2025, Eskom said it planned to deploy 6.2 million smart meters over three years, with 1.69 million of which were prioritised for load reduction areas.
This aggressive rollout has proven successful in six of South Africa’s nine provinces, with the provinces with the highest number of offenders still to be addressed.
According to Eskom’s Power System Update for 31 July 2026, the power utility had freed nearly 1.2 million households from load reduction, representing approximately 70% of all targeted households.
“Six of South Africa’s nine provinces have been completely removed from load reduction,” the power utility stated. “An estimated 1,196,657 customers are no longer impacted by load reduction.”
This included 670,785 customers in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, 268,902 in Gauteng, and 21,835 in the Eastern and Western Cape.
At the same time, 184,907 customers in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, and 50,228 in the North West and Northern Cape have been removed from load reduction.
This article was first published by MyBroadband and is republished with permission.
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