ESKOM FACES NEW WAR
Utility, Joburg fight as Soweto’s power is cut
ESKOM is under attack – by the City of Joburg and the regional ANC – over the almost week-long spate of power outages in Soweto.
The council has slammed the power utility for inefficiency and for failing to deliver on its mandate.
The City of Joburg claimed that areas supplied by its own utility, City Power, still had power, but those Eskom supplied did not.
“This is why new housing and business developments such as RDP houses, flats and hotels have power in the township, while the large part of Soweto supplied by Eskom has been cut off,” said Matshidiso Mfikoe, the city’s mayoral committee member for Environment and Infrastructure Services.
She accused Eskom of being “insensitive” and showing “complete and utter disregard” for the people of Soweto.
But Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said there was “nothing sinister” about the power outages.
He attributed the blackouts to load shedding and then, when the power was due to be switched on again, overloading that caused the transformer to trip.
“When you have in some houses four or five backrooms using stoves at the same time, there is absolutely no way that the power will hold.
“We can’t control unplanned outages resulting from overloading,” Phasiwe said.
Eskom has been involved in a long-running battle with Soweto consumers over unpaid bills. Phasiwe said Soweto owed Eskom about R8 billion, of which R4bn was overdue.
“Some 84 percent of residents have not been paying their debt. Ideally, you should be having 16 percent not paying and 84 percent paying,” Phasiwe pointed out.
A key dispute – related to the outstanding billing problem – is the installation of prepaid electricity meters in Soweto. Both Eskom and City Power are installing meters for their customers. There have been ongoing protests across Soweto against their installation. Last week, Orlando West residents blockaded streets in protest against Eskom’s prepaid meters.
Mfikoe accused Eskom of changing the payment system unilaterally. She suggested it was inconceivable that the prolonged outages could occur without notice “in the township internationally renowned as home to two Nobel peace laureates, Dr Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu”.
The furore appears to have degenerated into mud-slinging politics, with the ANC in the region describing the power outages as “insensitive” and “an act of sabotage” to thwart the governing party in the city ahead of next year’s local government elections.
“Remember there are local government elections coming next year. When you have blackouts for more than the usual hours in an area that is a stronghold, it will project the image that the ANC can’t deliver basic services,” said Jolidee Matongo, Greater Johannesburg ANC spokesman, when asked what he meant by “sabotage”, yesterday.
Along with Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay in Port Elizabeth, Joburg was among the big metros in which the ANC saw its support base decline in last year’s general election.
Matongo could not say who from Eskom was sabotaging the ANC, but was scathing about its “insensitive and incompetent executives”.
“The failure by Eskom to inform Soweto residents in advance about cut-offs and its failure to provide answers borders on ill-discipline by highly paid Eskom officials, who live outside Soweto and are enjoying themselves in well-lit and posh houses in the suburbs.”
He said the ANC would mobilise residents into a protest to demand the dismissal of the officials.