Council gives reasons for power cuts
The municipality acknowledged that some of the consumers' power have been erroneously cut during the first phase and all measures have been taken to remedy the errors.
HIGHVELD – Residents of the Govan Mbeki Municipality are sitting in the dark because of power cuts by the municipality.
The electricity cuts are mostly targeting pre-paid users.
Residents are being blamed for not buying electricity from the municipality for a period of six months and the municipality said it means that they are bridging electricity.
The contractors employed by the municipality to disconnect the electricity were instructed to remove breakers from the green boxes, the meter boxes and the electric cables.
In some cases meter boxes were removed, only the breakers from the green boxes.
When residents enquired at the municipality, they were told to pay between R4 000 and R5 000 for their electricity to be reconnected within 48 hours.
The municipality also cut off electricity of residents with poof that they buy electricity every month and the municipality promised to reconnect their power immediately, which did not happen.
Some residents paid the said amount though they were not guilty of bridging electricity and their rates and taxes were also paid up to date, because they wanted to have electricity.
“Contractors hired by the municipality are very rude, they just come in without talking to anyone and disconnect the electricity and remove the meter boxes,” said one resident.
Residents blamed the municipal pre-paid reading management system of being faulty, because it shows that they do not buy electricity, while they do buy from garages and other vending machines.
One resident from Trichardt said they have gas installed in their house and that is why they seldom buy electricity, and the municipality removed the meter box without talking to them.
“I went to the municipal offices in Secunda many times to enquire as to when they would reconnect the electricity after I had shown them evidence of the slips that I get when buying electricity.
“The contact number they gave us was just ringing and at times I was told to hold on for more that 30 minutes until I put down the phone, said Mr Marvin Claasen.
Mr Bheki Kubheka, Senior Manager at the municipality, said the process of electricity cut-offs are aimed at consumers who have not bought electricity over the past six months as per the report generated by the Municipal Finance System.
The report is analysed against each purchase that a consumer made during the period preceding the six months period in order to determine the buying trend on average, in order to make informed conclusions on the zero purchase.
This is to ensure consumers buy electricity from legal and licensed electricity vendors and also to address the distribution losses which are cited as one of the major reasons for the municipality’s failure to pay the Eskom debt.
“The municipality acknowledges that some of the consumers have been erroneously been cut off during the first phase and all measures have been taken to remedy the errors and as such consumers who believe that they were erroneously been cut off, should immediately contact the municipal finance division and where possible provide proof of purchase which would simplify the remedial processes.”
Read what the executive mayor said about the issue here https://bit.ly/1HpENYf
