Eskom puts its foot down
"Eskom will audit each house and every individual will pay a fee according to the problem with their meter," Buti Mogale.
The bitterly cold winter months where issues with electricity plague the communities of Soweto are past us and yet residents in a section of Protea Glen extension 12 protested last week following a month without electricity.
The problem began five weeks ago when a transformer exploded and was not fixed by Eskom due to the fact that residents were not using the electricity legally.
“We just heard something fall and then we heard a noise outside [where the meter box is] so from there we called Eskom and asked them to assist us.
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“They kept saying they’re coming until today and we still don’t have electricity,” explained a resident and community leader, Buti Mogale, who lives near the faulty electricity box.
Mogale explained that the five weeks without electricity were particularly difficult on his family financially as only one person in his household is employed.
“All our food got rotten, the kids bathed with cold water to go to school and we had to buy food from spaza shops and have takeaways which really strained us financially, especially in this recession,” he elaborated.
It was found that out of 54 houses in the block, only 12 were in good standing with the electricity provider while Eskom was unable to audit eight, five did not have meter boxes and two were not on Eskom’s list.
A member of Eskom’s Key Accounts Department Vusi Maphalala explained that the utility company could not install a new transformer until the source of the problem was found because it would also explode.
“The most common reason that causes a transformer to explode is bypass and people that did wrong things to the box,” he said.
Ward 135 councillor, Elliot Sithole suggested Eskom normalise the meter boxes that were tampered with and work out a three month tamper fine repayment plan in order to restore power to the area and resolve the issue.
Maphalala furthermore explained that it was difficult for Eskom to guarantee the approval of such a plan as they were not in a position to offer credit according to the National Credit Act. The community has agreed to buy their electricity legally from now on and they have also agreed to pay the R6050 tamper fee set by Eskom in order to normalise their meter boxes.
“Eskom will audit each house and every individual will pay a fee according to the problem with their meter. It will depend on the problem,” concluded Mogale.
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