Johannesburg - Hundreds of outraged Protea North, Soweto, residents have been left in the dark for the past four days because Eskom says it’s too dangerous to do repairs in area.
Residents claim they have paid their bills but Eskom is refusing to attend to outages. Some say Eskom deliberately switched off the sub-stations in retaliation for protests earlier this month against the installation of new meters.
One resident, Thandi Mabuza, said not only had she paid her bill, she had paid it in advance.
“Eskom says it is unsafe. Unsafe from what? There’s nothing broken. There’s nothing to fix there. They are the ones who switched our power off,” said Mabuza.
She said that technicians told her the power had been switched off at the sub-station.
“That’s why people are so angry,” she said.
Ward councillor Walter Mahlatsi is also angry.
“Eskom said it installed meters in about half the area but then was stopped by certain residents who formed a committee to stop further installation.
Now, because of the action of a few individuals, Eskom has taken a decision to take blanket action and deprive decent citizens who are paying their accounts,” he said.
Mahlatsi said his home was was in darkness and in danger because people wanted to stone it.
He said he would approach the City of Joburg’s mayoral committee for assistance to force Eskom to return.
Eskom couldn’t say when the power would be back on.
“The Protea North community is rejecting the installation of the split meters.
“As a result, the Eskom personnel and contractors were chased out from the area on several occasions with threats of violence,” said an Eskom spokesperson.
“Given these current unsafe circumstances, our staff has been advised not to attend to any faults reported in the area.”
The Star