Soweto residents fed up with ‘unfair’ fee cuts

Residents of areas near the Zola substation explosion in Soweto are protesting against Eskom’s “unfair” implementation of load reduction, which has left them in darkness for several hours a day.

Eskom has implemented load reduction to reduce high demand for electricity after a transformer explosion, believed to be linked to vandalism.

Residents described the load reduction as “relentless” and accused Eskom of being “reckless”. They said the outages were not in line with the load rotation schedule.

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One resident, Karabo Xaba, said she only just learned about the afternoon curtailment scheme after the community experienced power outages at unusual hours.

“We were treated unfairly. Yesterday we had no electricity and the day before we only had it for two hours.

Residents deplore the inconsistency

“The electricity will go out randomly for an hour or two in the morning without any clear indication of what happened,” Xaba said.

“They don’t respect the schedule and don’t rotate. Electricity is always cut off in the same sections, while other sections are never cut off.

“Just be fair and stick to the schedule. Don’t just jump to a section at any time,” she said.

The extent of the damage affected areas such as Dobsonville, Emndeni, Jabulani, Moletsane, Mofolo North, Naledi, Tladi, Zola and Zondi.

In Zondi, where the community barricaded roads, small business owner Daphanie Mashaba said she hoped Eskom would work quickly to restore electricity to the community.

She said her business would not survive if the problems continued.

“My business has taken a big hit in recent weeks. While Eskom tries to repair the damage, we are facing a load reduction, which hasn’t helped because I sell food and can’t keep stock because my fridge isn’t working.

“These four hours without electricity affect my profits because I have to make sure the gas tank is full and ready to use at all times,” she said.

READ ALSO: Eskom fights against overload and theft, 400 transformers replaced

Sipho Ndlovu, a resident of Emdeni, said the drop in electricity load was not stable. He said he was worried and had to seek electricity from relatives in unaffected areas.

“We go to bed without electricity and we wake up without electricity.

“This presents a challenge for those of us working from home. I need to make sure the WiFi and laptop are working to have a good day at work.

“Now we are forced to go and work elsewhere and that comes at an additional cost,” he said.

Mr Ndlovu said he wanted Eskom to be fair about how it carried out the rotation. “They don’t feel what we feel, that’s why we are frustrated with this unstable electricity supply. It’s our livelihood that is at risk,” he said.

“We want them to give us a proper schedule, because they turn it off at different times, rather than at the scheduled times.”

In response, Eskom said it had used this temporary measure to increase electricity consumption beyond its three transformers at the Zola substation.

The utility said the schedule had been communicated to affected communities.

She assured residents that she expected repairs to the substation to be completed by the weekend.