Residents of Soweto march from Uncle Tom’s Hall to the Diepkloof Eskom offices in Soweto, 26 February 2020, to hand over a memorandum of demands about opposition to paying for electicity. Picture: Tracy Lee Stark
Eskom is struggling to keep its head above water and is on the verge of collapse – so all those who do not pay their power bills, including Soweto residents, must start paying.
There is no excuse for resisting to pay as Soweto is no longer regarded part of the poorest of the poor, except for patches of poverty in some areas.
Sowetans need to understand that the anti-apartheid struggle many of us fought is over. We need to make our democratic system work.
This means it’s time we all pay for the services we receive.
The boycott strategy became invalid after 1994, when we attained our freedom.
Some of their leaders had been threatening to mobilise a national boycott against power cuts and load shedding – meaning they want to involve us to let them continue not paying. They forget that load shedding affects everybody, regardless of class or economic status, and that load shedding has nothing to do with nonpayment.
But if you don’t pay your electricity bill, it’s an entirely different story and the customary punishment for that is for the service to be withdrawn from the boycotter.
Soweto is not only the biggest township in South Africa, it is the most developed, with all its streets tarred and street lights everywhere. The place is also endowed with infrastructure, such as hospitals and community health centres, FET colleges, a university campus and is the first to have a bus rapid system, aptly named Rea Vaya.
They even have the luxury to boycott a new housing development built by the Gauteng government for billions of rands because they want to stay for free.
Many residents of Alexandra, especially hostel dwellers, would have wished to have a human settlement of the type abandoned and vandalised in Dube.
Sowetans never paid for electricity or anything since 1994, or before. They claim it’s an apartheid debt, when we know that debt was written off by the democratic government and the current debt accumulated after they continued with nonpayment.
Who is to blame? Nobody else but the Soweto residents themselves.
One of the solutions could be for the debt to be either slashed by half or written off completely – once more on condition the residents agree to the installation of prepaid meters and that they will pay going forward.
It is unfair to allow certain residents not to pay, while others are forced to.
We have very poor townships and villages elsewhere in SA that have been paying for electricity and water via prepaid systems in spite of their poverty. Soweto residents do not want prepaid meters of any kind because they want to enjoy free services.
They are on a perpetual boycott, despite the fact that some of them live in rich sections of the township, such as Diepkloof Extension, and drive 4x4s, expensive German sedans and live in luxury homes.
Diepkloof Extension and similar areas of Soweto are no different from Sandton or Bassonia, or any other rich suburb in SA. Therefore, the justification of poverty holds no water. If poverty-stricken residents of C Section at Duncan Village in East London and Khayelitsha in Cape Town are paying, why not Soweto?
Must we all boycott because of Soweto? I don’t think so.
Eric Naki.
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