A wealthy Eastern Cape businessman has allegedly been using “Izinyoka”‚ illegal electricity connections‚ to light up three of his East London businesses.

Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) spokesman Sibusiso Cindi said Michael Osner‚ who owns a pizza store and two popular pub and grub businesses in Nahoon and Abbotsford‚ had allegedly been stealing electricity from the metro for the past two years.

Osner‚ who is the director of the Kat Leisure Hotel Group‚ denied on Monday that he had illegal electricity connections at any of the businesses‚ saying he suspected that if the Abbotsford Arms had illegal connections‚ “it must have been from the previous tenant”.

Last week‚ when BCM electricity and energy services revenue protection specialists raided the Nahoon Arms Pub and Grub in Beach Road‚ Abbotsford Arms Pub and Grub‚ and Pedro’s Pizza also in Abottsford‚ saying they had discovered illegally connected wires.

“On inspection and testing of these installations‚ the electrician found a number of internal circuits that should have been metered had been bypassed‚ providing the businesses with ‘free’ electricity on those circuits‚” Cindi said.

Full story in The Herald (http://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2016/12/19/businessman-accused-stealing-electricity/) — TMG Digital/The Herald