No response from Eskom, Phalatse tells Soweto residents
Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse has told Soweto residents that despite constant engagements with Eskom, she is yet to receive a concrete plan to resolve their electricity crisis.
The mayor addressed residents at the Soweto Theatre on Saturday, where she's told them that 90% of the issues raised in the memoranda delivered to her office in June were Eskom-related.
The mayor said despite not having authority over Eskom, she has continued to engage with the power utility on behalf of residents since December 2021 in an attempt to find lasting solutions to their problems.
This includes considering the intro of alt energy, fixing ailing infra and reinstating Eskom's community liaison officers, and addressing illegal connections, infrastructure theft, and vandalism and non-payment, among other concerns.
"On 12 July I wrote to the ministers of public enterprise, finance and minerals, and energy, as well as to the Eskom CEO requesting their intervention,” Phalatse said.
“In my letter, I asked the minister and the CEO to consider writing off Soweto's debt and to consider a different debt repayment model. We have done this."
According to Phalatse, the city has written off close to R44 million of debt of region D, which includes Soweto, since 2019.
However, Phalatse said while the city has built a good working relationship with Eskom, the engagements have thus far failed to produce the change that is being demanded by aggrieved residents.
"With all the attempts my office has been engaging in with Eskom, we are yet to receive a concrete plan that can be presented to Soweto," Phalatse said.
The mayor told residents that if the ministers she's approached on the issue fail to respond within 14 days, she will personally lead a march with residents to Eskom.
Meanwhile, ahead of the mayor’s address, Soweto Parliament's Nhlanhla 'Lux' Mohlauli said they were there only for the answers to the questions and problems they had posed to the mayor during the march to her office.
"Amongst those problems that need to be solved is the electricity issue. I am happy that Eskom officials are here to speak for themselves. Among the issues that were raised with the City was the lack of service delivery in general. We lost a young boy by the name of Khaya [Magadla] in Dlamini, and his death was because of the lack of service delivery," he said.
Magadla, a six-year-old grade R pupil from Dlamini in Soweto, fell into an open manhole while playing with friends at a local park in June. His body was retrieved 21 days later, after an extensive search operation.
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