Sowetans are starting to pay for electricity

Following a number of protests against Eskom’s proposed prepaid installation, the power utility says some Soweto residents have made some progress in paying off their electricity debt which is currently sitting on R12,9 billion. The move to prepaid was Eskom’s way of getting Sowetans to start paying for their electricity.

Last year, the power utility said that residents were owing R18 billion in unpaid electricity bills and according to Eskom’s senior manager for customer services in Gauteng, Daphne Mokwena, since the introduction of prepaid meters, there has been a huge difference in the payment levels.

“We do see some improvement in the payment level and this is due to the installations of prepaid meters.

[also read] – Protest action in Tladi and Moletsane, Soweto

“Currently, we are sitting on 65 756 installed prepaid meters,” said Mokwena.

Many residents say that they cannot afford to pay their electricity bills and thus resort to illegal connections, but Mokwena says those will lead to the disconnection of electricity and fines being imposed.

“We have also been trying to contact customers just to remind them to continue buying electricity and I think since we have started with that intervention, it has also added to the progress. But other than that we have also disconnect those who are not paying and then they’ll come to our offices to pay the charged fines then get reconnected again,” Mokwena said.

However, those who are buying electricity are concerned about the ongoing load reductions and say the utility must only switch off electricity for those who are not paying.

Eskom says that load reductions are done as a controlled option to respond to unplanned events to protect the electricity power system from a total blackout which can occur when there is too much demand and too little supply.

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