CAPE TOWN - Eskom on Wednesday issued an appeal to the community of Ivory Park to guarantee its technicians safe access to the area to replace failed transformers and remove illegal connections.
The power utility said the transformers failed due to illegal connections and meter bypasses resulting in network overloading.
Eskom said a meeting with ward councillors, taxi associations and officials from the Johannesburg metro last week collapsed because no agreement could be reached on a "process to engage the community".
‘We would like to urge the community of Ivory Park to collaborate with Eskom to adequately deal with this matter by allowing us access to the area so that we can conduct audits, remove illegal connections, disconnect bypassed meters and issue fines for the contraventions. The intention for the preceding activities is to avoid the repeat of damage to the equipment and electricity network,” said Motlhabane Ramashi, the operations and maintenance manager for Eskom's Gauteng Operating Unit.
He said Eskom had guidelines on replacing failing equipment and would not deviate from it.