Johannesburg – Soweto residents say because of a breakdown in trust between them and power supplier Eskom, they will not allow any Eskom workers on their properties.
This comes after Eskom complained this week that they were not being given access to certain properties and that their officials were experiencing rejection from some customers.
Soweto owes billions of rand to Eskom due to unpaid debt but some residents have blamed Eskom’s faulty meters for the high levels of debt. In some cases, households owe more than R100 000 for electricity, while some houses have been disconnected.
King Sibiya, a member of the Crisis Committee, said residents had the right to refuse Eskom workers entry to their homes because there was simply no trust between the community and Eskom.
“Eskom must give us a document that shows that they have the right to be in our houses. We have title deeds to these houses.
’’If they want to come in, they must have a warrant of arrest. If they are coming to check the meter, they must tell us, but they are most likely to find a fault (and) then we end up paying again,” Sibiya said.
He said people were even feeling uncomfortable about seeing Eskom vehicles driving around the township because Eskom was now associated with switching lights off for the poor instead of servicing the poor.
“We are now enemies of Eskom. This Eskom is no longer our Eskom because they have instilled fear in us.”
Another leader of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, Trevor Ngwane, said Eskom had alienated itself from the community and only had itself to blame for that.
“(They) coming into your property is not a friendly visit. They come and pretend to be doing something else and they do something else.
“They treat the people of Soweto like enemies. They scapegoat and talk about the people of Soweto having a culture of non-payment and they owe Eskom billions of rand and are stealing power.
’’When someone speaks about you like that, it’s going to be hard to welcome them in your home,” Ngwane said.
He said he was disappointed in the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa for forgetting the people of Soweto. He said leaders such as the president spent a lot of time in Soweto before ascending to power and should understand the problems in the area better.
“It’s really sad. He is a child of Soweto but it seems when he made it as a billionaire he forgot about Soweto.
’’The guys he grew up with and the aunts and grannies next door are living in darkness and his policies are further commodifying electricity,” Ngwane said.
He said that while the president deserved to be heckled over the Soweto electricity problems when he visited the township a few days ago, it was sad that his aged sister, Ivy Ramaphosa, had to become involved in the township electricity issues.
Some protesters gathered outside the president’s sister’s house in Chiawelo asking her to call her brother and demanding electricity. Reports suggest that Ivy was left traumatised.
Meanwhile, Eskom said residents were legally obliged to allow its officials to carry out their work on their properties.
“Eskom has noted with concern, an increase in the number of customers refusing Eskom and/or Eskom-appointed contractors access to their properties. This results in customers being billed on estimates instead of actual readings.
’’Long-estimated customer accounts contribute to poor estimation performance, which results in under- or over-billing of customers,” the utility said in a statement.
Eskom said a failure to grant Eskom access to the property for the purpose of meter reading or any other authorised work may result in supply being disconnected and penalties being charged.
“These penalties will vary from (but are not limited to) additional charges for having to execute special meter readings and adjustments to accounts to offset any inaccuracy in billing.”
The Star