Service shedding: ‘If City Power denies residents electricity, they will be creating a powder keg’

City Power is threatening to have the majority of Joburg residents left in the dark.

This comes after the announcement that if 70% of electricity consumers in an area do not pay for the service, they will not be attended to if they experience power outages.

As much as this will make perfect sense in a country that has everyone employed and earning high salaries, it is outrageous for a country like South Africa.

And what will happen to the 30% who may be paying for their municipal bills? With a high number of unemployed and poverty-stricken residents in Johannesburg townships, this means areas with high debts on their electricity accounts will suffer a huge blow.

Townships will feel the brunt

Many in these townships depend on hustling for a living.

They are self-sustaining through small businesses that require electricity to operate and these businesses are only just capable of putting food on the table.

These businesses range from hair salons and taverns, to food stalls. Now, imagine how much these businesses make.

They can barely provide for their families and how much more about the expensive cost of electricity? City Power’s stance will choke a lot of households and their livelihoods will be ruined.

For if City Power never restores electricity, many businesses will be paralysed and forced to close their doors.

‘Gambling with lives’

City Power is gambling with the lives of the people. Because when they deny people access to this unaffordable electricity, they will be disrupting their lives.

And once that happens, how will families survive and how will they assist their children in reaching their full potential through education?

The once-promising idea of revitalising township economies will remain a dream. Places like Vilakazi Street in Orlando West, Soweto, will cease to exist and tourism will be a thing of the past.

The foundation of the economic boom will be shattered. And with that, how many families will be left stranded and without the income? As much as they don’t pay income tax, they still stand to collapse Joburg’s economy.

Transport unaffordable

Transport will be unaffordable for them and the transport operators will be hit hard on their pockets as they won’t have commuters and won’t afford petrol.

Inflation will really be on the rise. But it is understandable that City Power must stay afloat, hence it is important that the government comes to the party.

NOW READ: Joburg City Power: Broke and loss-making, with a grid on the brink

Government intervention

Government should negotiate for a total wipe-out of the bills and rescue City Power. An affordability assessment should be conducted on Joburg residents to determine who can pay or who should have their debts scrapped.

Because recovering R10 billion from some of these residents will be impossible.

To make matters worse, if City Power denies residents electricity, they will be creating a powder keg. Residents won’t take this lightly; they will fight back – and this fightback will result in violent protests that may lead to loss of life and a total meltdown of Joburg’s economy.

Bosmont residents took to the streets on Monday, after not having electricity and water supplies for the past seven days.

With dire economic conditions globally, the “City of Gold” will find it hard to recover. In addition, it’s not only the poor that will be affected.

Malls, shopping centres and big businesses will have to be left without electricity because some of them also have electricity debts.

When they are subjected to these power outages by City Power, they will be forced to spend more money on generators and this will end up as an unsustainable activity for these entities.

City Power should go back to the drawing board, because what they want to initiate will not achieve their objectives but will be catastrophic to our country.

Eskom is also implementing load shedding – and how is it fair for people to even end up paying for the electricity that they are not receiving in the first place?

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