Eskom is still patient with the municipality.
The Municipal Manager, Mr Theo van Vuuren met with the Provincial Treasury and Eskom on Tuesday, November 8 and although there is positive progress Emalahleni Local Municipality is still in a crisis when it comes to their electricity bill.
“We have to reiterate the need for everyone to play their part in finally resolving this continuous problem. We have limited time and must ensure that we show a positive movement during this month and ensure that we turn the situation around fully before the next winter period,” said Van Vuuren.
He explained that should the current initiatives and the municipality’s request to the public to service their current accounts and part of their arrears not be successful we may face formal cut off notices from Eskom and final bulk supply interruptions of up to eight hours a day towards the end of January.
“This I am confident we can and will prevent, but only if we work together.”
The following steps will be taken as from this week to support the repayment of the winter months’ arrear account to Eskom. The Red Ants have been appointed to enforce cut offs and credit control as well as to monitor that cut offs are not illegally switched back on before arrangements have been made. They are starting operations next week.
Written formal notices to notify defaulting customers that they have two weeks from the date of the notice will be delivered to each defaulting client’s premise. In terms of this notice electricity can be interrupted without further notice after the expiry of the two weeks unless payments are made.
Joint operations with the SAPS will be targeting specific areas and will also address land use infringements and illegal connections.
Where electricity has been cut and people switch it on illegally, they will be fined and may be charged in terms of the criminal code. Where businesses or households have been cut off and they use generators or tap from their neighbours, unless formal permission has been granted, will also be liable to a fine and to be charged.
Where transformers burn out as a result of illegal connections these will only be replaced when the community has cleared the area of illegal connections and contribute to the replacement costs in a meaningful way.
No re-connections after hours will be allowed unless with the approval of the chief financial officer, the director of technical services or the municipal manager, and only in exceptional cases. In terms of the bylaws the municipality has 72 hours after payments have been made to reconnect.
Where people use prepaid but do not pay their other services, electricity will be disrupted until the payments are made.
Should areas not respond positively and payment rates per area remain below 50% in that area, the municipality will be forced to introduce load shedding in that area.
“The public’s cooperation and participation in these efforts will be highly appreciated. In the past I could find alternative sources of funding to keep on subsidizing the mismatch between Eskom accounts and revenue from consumers, but this is no longer the solution.”
If everyone makes a conscious decision to conserve a little electricity at home, it will make a huge difference on the municipality’s electricity bill. Eskom has helpful hints on their website that can help consumers save electricity by doing simple things at home.
Visit their website www.eskom.co.za and become part of the solution.
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