OPINION: Is Eskom still rendering services to rural areas or not?

I refer to the numerous power outages in rural areas and recent strikes that have been taking place in and around the South Coast.

We have not yet received a full statement from Eskom that states that they won’t be rendering services to the rural/informal settlements if there’s a power outage due to transformers being blown or when they are a single-phase outage.

I have noted that in Oshabeni Location there are numerous places without power and, hence, they have reported the faults to Eskom but the reference numbers are being closed off without a technician sent to assist. No calls are going in to Eskom, Shelly Beach.
I drove around and established that transformers are old and have not been serviced in a long time but when they blow up those that are fed by that transformer will be without electricity for months.

Eskom constantly blames people and states it is ‘network overloading’ that causes the transformer to blow up.
Even in Mthwalume there are places without electricity and no feedback has been given to people and thus most of the people pay for the electricity.

I quote one of the supervisor/members of Eskom at a meeting held in Oshabeni MPCC hall: ‘We are waiting for certain transformers to blow up in the region and we won’t fix them but rather the affected people will have to purchase it by themselves’.

Where does that leave as we do already purchase electricity?
In closing, has there been an official statement released that states that Eskom won’t, or is not willing, to assist people staying in rural areas?

Has there been an official statement released that states that Eskom won’t fix transformers that have blown up?
I have been without electricity for about 26 days (at the time of writing last week) and all my reference numbers have been closed off.

S HLOPHE

A response from Eskom is awaited.

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