South Africa

South Africa

Township life: Winter chill and the exploitation of Eskom

Township life: Winter chill and the exploitation of Eskom

Eskom has been under immense pressure to transform fast following a load shedding era that exposed glaring misses at the power utility. In townships, the parastatal faces a litany of daunting challenges from irresponsible customers and izinyoka (electricity thieves) to criminals. By BHEKI C. SIMELANE.

As winter season wears on, many communities in Gauteng are bearing the brunt of challenges in the provision, use and proper management of electricity. Many South Africans who live in informal settlements worry at this time of the year – not so much about the harsh reality of cold weather but from constant fiddling with electricity boxes by illegal users who also want to stay warm this winter.

Whole communities of informal settlements are provided with electricity while some in the same communities are excluded. This leads to a situation where those without electricity fiddle with Eskom connections, prompting massive and lengthy blackouts mostly felt by those who pay for their electricity. Often this has led to fights and death threats as those without electricity push to keep the lights on and stay warm throughout the cold season.

In some informal settlements residents were told that they are “overflow”, a term that has bewildered some who claim that outsiders are receiving legal connections ahead of them, making it harder to understand what overflow is or why people from other areas are given priority ahead of themselves.

Corruption is at the centre of the electricity concerns because many of those outsiders simply pay their way into communities, increasing the strain on Eskom and the burden on paying residents. The corrupt practices are perpetuated by greedy officials who do not have the interests of the communities they are serving at heart.

The worst part is that even some of those who pay for their electricity have started to exploit the Eskom connections by using their legally connected electricity while making illegal connections to evade charges. In some instances irresponsible residents simply remove fuses from distribution boxes. This criminal act normally happens late at night because the thugs know that such acts in the townships are punished by mob justice.

Removing the fuses immediately plunges many into darkness and presents a chance to exploit the electricity situation once more. The thugs then go door to door collecting money from unsuspecting neighbours, claiming that the cash, normally from R10 upwards, will be used to buy fuses. As soon as they receive the cash they return the fuses, the lights are back on and everyone is happy until the thugs are broke again.

But at the heart of the electricity troubles is the inefficiency of officials whose control over who gets a connection is ineffective. Those that don’t have a connection make illegal connections from electricity poles, in the process destroying cables, distribution boxes, and electricity poles, at great cost to Eskom. Not only does such destruction affect cables, boxes and electricity poles, it affects paying customers immensely.

This is truly horrible. I hate to be affected the manner I have because I pay for my electricity,” said Patrick Buyo, a Protea South resident. “The worst part is that when you report a fault to Eskom they take too long to attend to it. I have been without electricity for the whole of this winter month because Eskom still hasn’t pitched to fix the problem. I have four reference numbers from Eskom already. But our biggest challenge is our neighbours who are without electricity. We struggled together without electricity and it’s sad to see that our neighbours are still struggling.”

The solution is to provide electricity to every deserving community member, to avoid quarrels and save Eskom millions in damaged cables, boxes and electricity poles. The current situation has turned neighbour against neighbour. Eskom is constantly expected to keep maintaining these cables, distribution boxes and electricity poles when they should be concentrating on other communities in need of electricity.

But the trend of exploiting electricity and sabotaging Eskom is almost the same everywhere, often escalating in winter. Irresponsible residents burn distribution boxes and transformers to get back at those who will not allow them to make illegal connections. They use this to threaten paying customers to give in to their demands for illegal connections. Individuals live off Eskom’s electricity without paying a cent themselves while making others pay.

My neighbour has electricity, I don’t. This causes tensions among us,” said a Diepsloot community leader who asked to remain anonymous. “Now we have to fight for electricity, yet we have been living together in harmony for decades. The government installs electricity at my neighbour’s and not me and we are being told we are overflow. I don’t even understand what overflow is. How can I be overflow yet some people who have just arrived from other areas already have electricity? No neighbour of mine will have electricity while I don’t. The government should show concern and give us electricity. I also don’t like free stuff so I will pay for my electricity.”

He did not say how he would achieve preventing neighbours from using their electricity but promised he would put on an “epic” performance in ensuring that everyone stays in the dark because the government was inconsiderate. “It’s the same causes, lacking innovative solutions, and amid massive top-up corruption,” he said.

He added, “Eskom are a huge entity, good enough and with the potential to solve electricity challenges in a decent manner, but they are not really in touch with the people. There should be a reason why they could not fully understand how some of their losses occurred. And a significant amount of that is attributable to what’s happening at informal settlements. They need to conduct intensive consultations with communities because that could save them millions if not billions.”

He also admitted that Eskom had since shown great commitment to turning things around. DM

Photo: Eskom power lines run through an open field as the sun rises on a cold winters day in Johannesburg, South Africa, 08 June 2015. EPA/KIM LUDBROOK

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