Eskom threat of a dark Christmas for Soweto proves empty

Despite the many concerns from Soweto residents, the lights were kept on for Christmas Day after fears that Eskom was going to cut off the electricity of nonpaying residents.

Soweto owes the power utility almost R20 billion – almost half of the total local municipal debt owed to the power producer – but residents were lucky to avoid a black Christmas, despite the growing tensions between residents and Eskom.

According to residents of Protea Glen, which is usually hit the hardest by the power cuts, there were no outages and they were pleased to be spared from the darkness.

“Luckily, there were no power outages this time around, otherwise it would have been a very bad and dark Christmas,” said one resident who did not want to be named.

He said that in the past, Protea Glen was one of the hardest-hit areas due to illegal electrical connections and meter box tampering. In Orlando East and West, The Citizen was told by residents that there were also no problems with power outages leading up to Christmas Day and Boxing Day and that only certain parts of the township had been cut off before Christmas Day.

“You can drive around for yourself and ask other people, but they will tell you that here in Orlando by the stadium, there were no power outages and we enjoyed our Christmas with no worries about cooking,” said one woman, who identified herself as Mamkhize. She said she was worried that she would not be able to cook her favourite Christmas dish because of electricity outages which occasionally occur in the area.

Eskom spokesperson Dikatso Mothae said illegal electrical connections and meter tampering were the main reasons behind the power outages in Soweto. She said the power utility would continue with its efforts to recover the debt owed to it by residents by doing meter audits.

“We are still doing meter audits and we will continue with what we have been doing, which is disconnecting illegal connections and disconnecting those who do not pay their electricity bills,” said Mothae.

She said despite a constrained and vulnerable system, no load shedding was expected in the foreseeable future. Eskom said it was a criminal offence to break or steal covers of meter boxes, substations or other Eskom property. Entering Eskom property could lead to perpetrators being arrested and there was the danger of injury or death.

– gcinan@citizen.co.za

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