Ilfracombe resident fed up with electricity issues
The matter initially began in July this year and is yet to be resolved.
An Ilfracombe home owner (who wishes to remain anonymous to avoid potential victimisation) is facing ongoing electricity problems in her residential area near Umgababa since July.
Initially, her household and several others had no electricity for days after a transformer blew up. The residents logged numerous complaints with Eskom but were told by technicians that they were unable to assist until the occupants of the illegal electrical connections paid their bills.
The woman stated that people from her area do connect to Eskom electricity poles illegally, but it confuses her as to why paying households are being punished.
Eskom did provide feedback at the time and noted that it was aware of an isolated transformer PUGS44, which feeds Umgababa customers, that has failed due to an overload caused by a high number of bypassed meters and illegal electricity connections. It was also established that there were more people connected illegally to electricity in comparison to paying customers.
Eskom stated that before the transformer can be replaced and supply restored, an audit must be conducted and the network normalised. It requested that at least 75% of customers connected to a transformer should be buying electricity before a transformer is replaced.
“We were then given a list of community members that were given penalty fines to pay which we all then decided to contribute towards (whether you were given the fine or not) to try to speed up the process and Eskom did confirm receipt of the required number of community members (12 people) to pay their fines,” explained the home owner.
“Now when we try to find out how long it will take to reissue or fix the transformer PUGS44, we are being given the run around by Eskom and told that they require an additional number (11 people) of community members to still pay their penalty fines prior to them (Eskom) completing their audit and reissuing/fixing our transformer.”
The woman said that they now feel as if they are being exploited by Eskom, especially the minority who do loyally pay for their electricity.
“We are now also facing another urgent problem as our cables are stolen in the late hours of the night or early morning which has now led us to create a forum group that patrols the area in pitch darkness,” she said.
“Please bare in mind, some of us including myself have no male figures in the household so we are forced to patrol, yet it is not safe to do so.”
Eskom was contacted for feedback and an update as to when the residents can expect their electricity issues to end. The Eskom Media Desk acknowledged this request, but no feedback was received at the time of going to print.
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