No power for six weeks for Soweto residents

Early last month an electrical fault in central Soweto blew, plunging a vast swathe of the bustling township – and hundreds of families – into darkness. Now – six weeks later and with power still not restored – the desperate community is turning to the courts for help. But Eskom said customers in the area were not paying their bills and so the utility is converting their accounts to prepaid – a process that can take months. Local business owner Phello Rathebe, who lives in the area with his elderly parents, said when the power first went out on 12…

Early last month an electrical fault in central Soweto blew, plunging a vast swathe of the bustling township – and hundreds of families – into darkness. Now – six weeks later and with power still not restored – the desperate community is turning to the courts for help.

But Eskom said customers in the area were not paying their bills and so the utility is converting their accounts to prepaid – a process that can take months.

Local business owner Phello Rathebe, who lives in the area with his elderly parents, said when the power first went out on 12 June they assumed it was as a result of load shedding or even load reductions.

When the power was still out about three days later, they realised there was a problem. Rathebe said the community had made repeated attempts to resolve the issue, but all had come to nought.

Of the impact on his glass fitting and glazing business, Mofolo Glass Works, Rathebe said this had been severe as he needed electricity to run his power tools. He said tensions were reaching boiling point.

“We just want some sort of compassion from Eskom,” he said.

Local ward councillor Johannes Mofokeng said yesterday that two blocks, and more than 200 households, had been affected.

Weber Wentzel Attorneys have now taken the community’s case on.

Said attorney Samantha Robb yesterday, the matter was one of public interest and fell squarely into the firm’s pro bono department’s mandate.

Eskom spokesperson for Gauteng Reneilwe Semenya said yesterday that four mini-substations had failed in the area due to overloading and that customers in the area were not paying their bills
so Eskom had decided to convert them to a prepaid system.

“This process may take between two and three months and is dependent on customers agreeing to the prepaid metering system,” Semenya said.

She said Eskom was “working hard to collaborate with the affected customers by repairing or replacing equipment following the due process” but that it was in the utility’s best interests to  safeguard its assets.

– bernadettew@citizen.co.za

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