‘You will be forced to negotiate with us’, Soweto residents tell Eskom
Angry residents of Soweto have warned the Eskom that they will force the power utility to negotiate with them over the area’s lack of electricity.
A group of Soweto residents marched to the Eskom headquarters on Wednesday to demand an end to the electricity woes in the area.
They claim that certain parts of Pimville and some other parts of Soweto have been without power for over a year.
Resident Thato Mothopung says today’s protest was meant to serve as a warning to Eskom.
“You are using out taxpayers’ money and you are taking money from prepaid and so forth and you are still failing the community of Soweto. We’re here to tell you that this is our first initiative. If you fail to negotiate with us, you will be forced to negotiate with us. We are not here to play around.
ALSO READ: Eskom upgrades to stage 4 blackouts from Wednesday afternoon
“You must know this is our first message. If you fail, you will know what a disruption is. You are not experiencing a disruption right now, you will really experience a disruption soon. So please, we want to help you and make sure that the community and fellow South Africans out there are actually benefiting from you as a service provider.”
#Eskom Thato Mothopung who represents Tourism businesses in Soweto warns Eskom that if it doesn’t negotiate with residents then they’ll be more protests to come. pic.twitter.com/AJNPcucovR
— Jacaranda News (@JacaNews) June 9, 2021
Soweto residents owe Eskom over R18 billion in unpaid electricity bills.
Some residents believe that they are being punished by Eskom due to the debt owed.
However, Eskom’s Amanda Qithi says the power utility is not targeting Soweto residents.
"What is done in Soweto is applicable in other areas if there is loadshedding that’s happening it’s applied everywhere else.
"We do have a lot of backlog and really we have said that it is due to the overloading of our networks and illegal connections that are happening. There is a lot of failure of our transformers and illegal connections happening and those cause our transformers to fail.
"There’s a lot of issues that are involved to make sure that we don’t implement the plan as we had wanted to. The issues around the overloading of equipment, the illegal connections and the bypassing of meters and people operating on our networks. So you’ll find that we have to work on the same transformers over and over again so those are the issues and many more that lead to such issues."
Eskom and Soweto residents have since found common ground that may help in resolving the electricty crisis.
Sowetans will now be represented by a ten-member delegation which will work alongside Eskom to try and solve the issue.
