Residents protest over electricity issues in Diepsloot

Diepsloot residents took to the streets on 10 October to protest about issues with electricity they have experienced in the past few months.

Ward 113 councillor, Abraham Mabuke said in a statement that since lockdown was declared, 40 per cent of the entire Diepsloot area did not have electricity, and several areas experienced electricity cut-offs many times during the winter period.

“Some areas managed to have their electricity restored on time because they were cooperating with Eskom officials when it comes to auditing, filling and submitting payment arrangement forms on time and paying their first installments,” said Mabuke.

Thejane Ramagaga, Eskom communication and stakeholder in Gauteng said the power utility was aware of the protest.

“Eskom is in continuous engagements with councillors in Diepsloot on electricity related matters. We have recorded a significant number of pole-mounted transformers and mini-substations in high density areas which failed or exploded due to network overloading since the winter period,” he said.

“Diepsloot is one of the areas with failed electricity infrastructure. To address such challenges, Eskom conducts network audits before any network equipment can be replaced/repaired in order to determine the extent of the damage of the network,” Ramagaga explained.

He added that the audit process included the inspection of meter boxes, illegal connection removals, the issuing of remedial fines to customers guilty of tampering with the infrastructure and meter bypasses. Eskom previously embarked on a project to cut illegal connections in the area as reported in the Fourways Review article Lights out for Diepsloot [published Week ending 9 October.]

Ramagaga concluded that Eskom had introduced load reduction as a measure to protect its network equipment from repeated damage as a result of overloading, and to improve its operations and optimise plant performance.