Eskom apologises to Soweto

In a statement Eskom CEO Brain Molefe said the outage was due to load shedding and other technical failures. 

"First and foremost, on behalf of Eskom, I would like to personally apologise for the inconvenience that most customers have had to endure due to load shedding and other technical failures," he said. 

This comes after the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) and ANC Johannesburg Region marched to Eskom centre in Diepkloof on Thursday to relay their concerns about power cuts and lack of consultation on installations of pre-paid meters. 

Molefe said he welcomes SANCO's request for education and awareness on prepaid meters. 

"We welcome the fact that SANCO and its alliance partners would like us to roll out education and awareness campaigns about the benefits of prepaid meters, and that they would like us to provide prepaid meters to tenants who live in rented backrooms so that each tenant can pay according to their consumption," he said. 

Eskom said its infrastructure upgrade in Soweto is aimed at assisting in efficient utilisation of electricity, minimising the need for load shedding, reducing unplanned power outages and illegal connections. 

Eskom also said it seeks to stop the debt of R4 billion that Soweto owes from increasing. 

 

(Edited by Sune Du Toit)

(File photo: Gallo images) 

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