Elderly resident Alice Botha has shared her views with the herald about the recent and ongoing load shedding.
After three nights of no electricity for five hours at a time, she decided to call Eskom to find out why – to what she believed was load shedding – happens so frequently and for such long periods of time.
She stated that Eskom told her about the large municipal debt that Randfontein Local Municipality has and said that they have no load shedding scheduled for Randfontein. She was enraged by the inconvenience power cuts cause and also concerned about the large amount of debt and whether it is beginning to affect residents.
In an earlier article published by the herald, the Randfontein Local Municipality was allegedly found in arrears of R89 million with Eskom. Randfontein Executive Mayor Sylvia Thebenare assured residents the Randfontein’s residents’ electricity will not be cut as a result of this debt.
Lucky Chiya, Spokesperson for the Randfontein Executive Mayor, also confirms that it is not possible for Eskom to cut resident’s electricity because of the debt. He states that the debt is currently being paid off.
He continues to say that it is difficult to keep up with Eskom bills as there is not much revenue being collected from Randfontein residents.
“The is not much revenue collection because of the unemployment rate in Randfontein. People do not work and can therefore not pay their electricity bills and as a result, we cannot pay ours,” Chiya explains.
Lastly, Chiya states that when residents have a problem or concerns about electricity or any other municipal matter, they should contact the relevant authorities as there are different departments in the municipality that handle different things.
For electricity people can contact the service number for electricity on 011 411 0235/6 during office hours and 011 951 3000 after hours.
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