Soweto residents fed up with ‘unfair’ load reduction

Residents in the areas near the explosion of the Zola substation in Soweto are up in arms over the “unfair” implementation of load reduction by Eskom, which have plunged them into darkness for several hours a day.

Eskom implemented load reduction to reduce heavy electricity demand after the explosion of a transformer, believed to be linked to vandalism.

Residents described the load reduction as “relentless” and accused Eskom of being “inconsiderate”. They claimed the outages were not consistent with the load rotation schedule.

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A resident, Karabo Xaba, said she had only just become aware of the afternoon reduction schedule after the community had been experiencing outages at odd times.

“We have been treated unfairly. Yesterday, we had no electricity and the day before we only had electricity for two hours.

Residents bemoan inconsistency

“Electricity will leave randomly for an hour or two in the morning without a clear indication as to what has occurred,” said Xaba.

“They don’t stick to the schedule and they don’t rotate. Electricity is always off in the same sections all the time while the other sections are never off.

“Just be fair and stick to the schedule. Don’t have this thing of switching off at any time to one section,” she said.

The extent of the damage has affected areas including Dobsonville, Emndeni, Jabulani, Moletsane, Mofolo North, Naledi, Tladi, Zola and Zondi.

In Zondi, where the community barricaded the roads, a small business owner, Daphanie Mashaba, said she hoped Eskom would work quickly to resume electricity to the community.

She said that her business would not survive if the issues continued.

“My business has taken a knock over the last weeks. While Eskom is trying to repair the damage, we are hit with load reduction which hasn’t helped because I sell food and cannot keep stock because my fridge doesn’t work.

“Those four hours of no electricity affects my profits because I need to ensure the gas tank is filled and ready to use at any given time,” she said.

ALSO READ: Eskom battles overloading and theft, 400 transformers replaced

Emdeni resident Sipho Ndlovu said the load reduction was not stable. He said he was worried and had resorted to seeking electricity with relatives in unaffected areas.

“We go to bed without electricity and wake up without electricity.

“This has presented a challenge for those of us who work from home. I need to make sure that the Wi-Fi and laptop are working to have a proper workday.

“Now we are forced to go work somewhere else and that is at an additional cost,” he said.

Ndlovu said he wanted Eskom to be fair on how it conducted its rotation. “They don’t experience what we feel, hence we are frustrated by this unstable supply of power. This is our livelihood at risk,” he said.

“We want them to give us a proper schedule because they’re switching it off at different times, rather than the stipulated scheduled times.”

In response, Eskom said it had resorted to the temporary measure to increase electricity consumption beyond its three transformers at the Zola substation.

The utility said the schedule had been communicated to the relevant communities.

It assured the residents it was expecting that repairs to the substation would be concluded over the weekend.