West Rand Power Distributors (WRPD) is a utilities supplier which services the West Village area situated on the border of Krugersdorp. For clarification, WRPD is separate from the Mogale City Local Municipality (MCLM), and MCLM areas will not be affected by the following.
WRPD is reportedly in an ongoing dispute with Eskom concerning a debt of about R18 million. In previous correspondence between the News and WRPD, they noted that, “WRPD is locked in dispute resolution processes over unilateral and unjustified amounts added to the WRPD bill from Eskom in 2017, alleging that due to retrospective re-billing, WRPD owed it some exorbitant amounts. WRPD disputed this amount and requested proper details from Eskom as WRPD has at all material times made payment to Eskom of its running account in full. Eskom failed to provide proper billing, to which WRPD registered a dispute with Eskom, following the correct protocols”.
To read more about the dispute, click here:
West Rand Power Distributors responds to Eskom about West Village power shutdown
WRPD noted that they had “delivered substantial submissions from both itself as well as members of the public and affected business enterprises,” as requested by Eskom for consideration on the matter.
“WRPD has today been made aware that Eskom published a notice in the Daily Sun newspaper on 11 February 2020 informing the public of its final decision to proceed with the termination of electricity to the WRPD on 25 February 2020,” they noted in a statement.
WRPD subsequently questioned why the notice did not appear in a local newspaper available to West Village, “in fact Eskom chose to publish the notice in a way that is laudable, and in a newspaper that Eskom was expressly informed was not freely available in the West Village area,” and whether Eskom had considered the submissions made to it by involved parties in West Village.
Eskom was contacted by the News, and promptly responded with their most recent press release on the matter, but which goes against their published notice of 11 February, “Eskom will not proceed with the intended interruption of supply to the West Rand Power Distributors that was planned to commence on 20 February 2020. Eskom received substantial submissions by interested parties and [is] currently in review”.
Senior Manager for Customer Services in Gauteng, Daphne Mokoena further noted that, “it was seen necessary to further postpone the decision to 11 February 2020. The public will be given 14 days notice from date of publication should Eskom’s final decision adversely affect them”.
But, the notice published on 11 February noted that, “After careful consideration of all representations and the overall impact of the escalating debt, Eskom has taken a decision to proceed with the contemplated disconnection of bulk electricity supply to WRPD. Eskom hereby notifies all parties who are likely to be materially and adversely affected, that the contemplated disconnection of bulk supply to WRPD will commence on 25 February 2020”.
WRPD made it clear that they believe that Eskom has decided to terminate its supply “in the hope that members of the community would somehow force payment of an account that has been in dispute for years”.
Eskom unfortunately did not comment on the dispute itself when contacted by the News.
