As electricity issues persist across Soweto, Eskom announced on Thursday that it was withdrawing its services in various affected areas across the province due to violent protests.
Some of the affected areas in Soweto include Diepkloof, Orlando and Zola. The power utility said it was forced take a step back due to safety concerns arising from violent protests and threats to its employees and equipment.
“In this week alone, protestors barricaded roads, burned tyres, threw stones at Eskom employees and prevented them from accessing the power utility’s offices at Diepkloof, Ga-Rankuwa, Mnandi, Robinson and Zola Customer Network Centres (CNCs). These activities impact on Eskom’s ability to restore supply in affected areas,” said the power utility in a statement on Thursday.
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This is going to cause further delays for many residents of Soweto who have been without electricity for months due to damaged transformers.
Residents of Protea Glen Extention 12, Senaoane, Jabavu, Nomzamo and other parts of Soweto have been in the dark for many months now due to damaged transformers.
Once residents start protesting, the power utility classifies their area as a red zone or hot spot. Usually, Eskom doesn’t start working in such areas until residents can guarantee the power utility of the safety of its employees and equipment.
Some of the most common issues which lead to system overload and transformer failure according to Eskom are meter bypass, illegally connections and vandalism of the electricity infrastructure.
“Intimidating our employees and contractors, holding them hostage and the overall threat to their lives is deplorable. We will continue to withdraw our employees from such life threatening environments until we deem it safe for them to resume with our operations in those areas,” said Eskom’s Mashangu Xivambu.
Xivambu added that it costs the power utility a lot of money and resources to supply electricity to those who connect to the grid illegally.
While residents are urged to refrain from all illegal electricity related activities, they are also reminded that violent protests does not help speed up the process of restoring power but it prolongs it further.
“We encourage our customers and stakeholders to collaborate with Eskom and community leaders to deal adequately with electricity-related matters in their areas,” appealed Xivambu.
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