Eskom’s clampdown on townships that owe it billions in debt has been criticised as many areas get plunged into darkness.
The townships of Soweto have borne the brunt of the power utilities recovery plan, with many areas experiencing darkness and power cuts outside the load-shedding schedules.
The University of Johannesburg's (UJ) Centre for Sociological Research and Practice (CSRP) has released a research report exploring Soweto's experiences, responses, and solutions to the energy crisis in South Africa.
Entitled “Energy racism: The electricity crisis in South Africa”, the CSRP research team used an ethnographic, door-to-door research methodology to answer questions about how ordinary township folk experienced the electricity crisis, and what impact it had on their lives.
The research results contained in the 83-page report are captured in the concept of “energy racism”. The researchers found a situation in which black working-class communities were bearing the burden of the electricity crisis.
This, as the power utility circulated a notice to the residents of Protea North informing them that power would be cut off soon.
Residents of Protea South have been in the dark for four months as a result of evident non-payment and bypassing of electric meters, according to Eskom.
Last December saw Diepkloof residents blockading the roads with burning tyres in protest at prolonged power cuts by the power utility. Protea North may be next.
Residents of the area have been seeing a notice by the Eskom Gauteng Cluster notifying them that the power supply would soon be cut off due to high energy losses in the feeder that supplies electricity in the area. No date is specified on the notice.
The Sunday Independent team took to the streets of the area to gauge residents’ reactions. While some have not seen the notice, others have.
“Someone sent it to me on WhatsApp. We don’t know what’s going to happen. The crisis at Eskom cannot be limited to just Soweto residents. It is a parastatal that is being grossly mismanaged. Soweto residents are being used as scapegoats,” said Letsatsi Sedibe.
While not all residents buy their electricity from legal vendors, speaking off the record, those who bypass their electricity meters said they did so because they couldn’t afford electricity.
“It’s known everywhere in the kasi (township) that there is a vendor who underhandedly sells electricity somewhere. Electricity is way too expensive, we are paying for fraud done by fat cats and cadres of ANC. We’ll just have to wait and see if there will be anyone reporting izinyoka,” said a resident who asked not to be named.
Maria Tlou, 40, said it must be made clear that there are Sowetans who do pay for their electricity.
“One other thing we must address is this blanket statement that no Sowetans pay electricity; no. (That’s) incorrect. There are many parts of the township that use prepaid meters.
“Those who aren't paying have repeatedly said they were collecting on a promise made by politicians. Address Eskom’s problems with the politicians. To blame their issues and challenges on all Sowetans is completely unfair,” said Tlou.
According to Eskom, the notice was indeed circulated by the utility. It said in Soweto, Eskom had a total of 173 800 customers, of which 85 563 are zero buyers.
That means more than 50% of customers in Soweto are zero buyers (illegally - do not pay for the electricity they use), while only 40% buy and pay for electricity.
At this stage, Soweto owes Eskom R4.6 billion.
Said utility spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha: “Buying from illegal vendors is seen as tampering with the electricity meter. Illegal vouchers do not register on the Eskom system. Customers buying illegal vouchers from a ghost vendor will be disconnected and fined a minimum of R6 052.60 up to R30 000, and may face prosecution.
“All of these lead to electricity infrastructure (mini-substations and transformers) failures and explosions. These acts are widespread across all our areas of supply in Gauteng, including Soweto.”
The power utility said this was not targeting black communities, as some have alleged. Instead, they implemented load reduction in areas where there are high rates of illegal connections, energy losses and vandalism of electrical infrastructure.
"Eskom has not said it is black people that steal electricity. Eskom has said in the high residential areas we have massive problems with illegal connections," added Mantshantsha.
On why individual households cannot be dealt with once identified to be participating in these illegal connections, Mantshantsha said it was generally impossible to leave the power on for individual customers.
This was because the Eskom network was configured in such a way that it wasn’t always possible to disconnect only those customers not paying for electricity.
“Load reduction is a technical intervention to respond to the rising network equipment failures in areas with energy losses above 51% and it is implemented across Gauteng.
“We have implemented load reduction in other areas such as Glen Austin, Glenferness, Laezonia, Mooilande and Pebble Rock Golf Estate. Unfortunately, Eskom was forced to resort to load reduction as one of the control measures to protect the equipment from failure due to network overloading.
“This causes damage to equipment that could lead to explosions of transformers and other equipment, placing both members of the public and property at risk," he said.
Mantshantsha added if the energy losses improved in a manner that the equipment was no longer at risk of failure or explosion, then these customers would be removed from the load reduction schedule.
“Improvement in payment levels (purchasing of electricity tokens from legal vendors) and illegal electricity-related activities will qualify an area to be removed from the load reduction schedule.
“We are also conducting audits, removing illegal connections and acting against meter tampering, as well as imposing penalties for any transgression, while driving this initiative that is part of our multi-pronged strategy,” he said.