Residents urged to report illegal connections

Ward 114 councillor David Mangena wants Zandspruit to obtain legal electrical connections so that Eskom can respond to outages in a timely manner.

This was brought on by the power outage that left locals without power for more than 72 hours. Due to their failure to pay for power, several people were unable to file complaints with Eskom.

Ward 114 councillor David Mangena said that Eskom wanted reference numbers before they can attend to the issue.

“The majority of residents do not buy electricity. They can’t call Eskom or log their complaints when there is an outage. Residents need to do things legally so that everything is easy from there as well as on Eskom.

Residents that are legally connected were able to record complaints, but they were not prioritized because many residents were unable to report them.

Moses Makobela who runs a small business said that the disruption is too much to bear.

“It affects the network, which results in a loss of business time. I’m paying for electricity, and it is not fair for me to be affected just because others are not paying. I understand it is a basic need for the underprivileged, but I think they need to do the right thing.”

Makobela added that corruption is the key factor in Eskom not being able to assist and keep up with outages. “You have few people that benefit from these situations, while the majority are suffering.”

“We proposed that they build a mini centre here to have better communication between the community and Eskom. For example, when calls are logged all technicians that come to Zandspruit should also have a log book in that office so that we can also be able to monitor the calls. Sometimes we are told that the problems are resolved but not even a single technician attended to that problem.”

Eskom spokesperson Amanda Qithi said that Eskom was aware of the outage and it was due to a fault that occurred on the feeder which supplies Zandspruit.

She added that as part of their operations, network audits are conducted and customers found to have tampered with, bypassed their meters, illegally connected, and are not paying or purchasing electricity from legal vendors are disconnected.

“We would like to thank the customers that are paying for the electricity they have consumed and those who are purchasing electricity tokens from registered vendors. We urge them to report any illegal electricity-related activities in their community to the crime line number. These illegal activities negatively affect the electricity supply which often leads to unplanned and prolonged outages as in this case.”

Eskom Crime line: 0800 112 722

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