More darkness for Soweto as De Ruyter runs out of wheels

Johannesburg - Community members in Naledi (Draaihoek) in Soweto have been without power since May last year, in part, because Eskom at one point did not have a truck to deliver a replacement transformer.

Eskom quietly delivered the transformer two weeks ago after the Sunday Independent asked questions, but the nine-month-long blackout continues for frustrated residents since the unit is not yet connected to the grid.

Whereas millions of South Africans are becoming accustomed to getting a ray of electricity for a few hours a day, the Draaihoek residents in the south-western townships of Johannesburg, a traditional voter base of the governing ANC, have it worse.

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter recently resigned from the post amid murmurs in the governing party’s circles the rolling blackouts are intended to foster a regime change. Eskom has also been accused of implementing long hours of darkness in black townships as compared to the white suburbs.

Local councillor in Naledi Thulani Buthelezi says it is not unusual for Eskom to struggle with transport to deliver equipment. Buthelezi, who has been liaising between the community and Eskom, says that at times the issue is capacity, where “one truck is not able to deliver all the units for the whole of (area)”.

He also cites another example in Tladi, where City Power was requested to intervene because the Eskom trucks were broken down or taken for service.

“We actually negotiated with City Power to assist with securing the truck that was going to take the box and go and install. So as soon as Eskom trucks were available that process was stopped.”

He said with mini-sub boxes exploding every week, it was common there would be more boxes that need to be transported than the trucks available at Eskom.

“It simply means they are not enough to take the load at that time. You will find them using one truck to actually go install in all the areas and in that case, the speed which they would have liked to run with gets to be hampered because there are not enough trucks to can actually carry the load of all the boxes that would be available at the time.”

He says the initial delay in Draaihoek was due to outstanding payments of R500 per household, which were compulsory for Eskom to procure new transformers to replace the damaged unit.

“In terms of the procedure, when a mini-substation explodes and we find that more than 50% of the community did not pay, they are requested to pay through deferred payment arrangements. They make payments directly into the account of Eskom, by themselves. Once they reach 50%, then Eskom will start the internal process of procuring the box.

“But with the status quo at Eskom and also on the basis that boxes are exploding almost every week, then there are too many boxes that would have been on the queue to be procured."

Buthelezi said that “sometimes a problem with our people is that once they have made a payment, they expect the box to be delivered the next day”. He said untested rumours also tended to unsettle community members.

“The crux of the matter is them being impatient in this case. We have indicated that their box will be next on the line. But the process is that once the box is installed, everyone must be normalised - having electricity in prepaid format. We must convert people to prepaid first. Once everything is normalised, then they switch on the power.”

He says Eskom had previously adopted a strategy to install the boxes, switch on the power and then come back to convert households to prepaid.

“But some communities don’t allow them to come back and normalise so they realised that it does not work. What they do now, install the box, then normalise (convert to prepaid), then switch on.”

“It’s a matter of patience in this case. I know that the conditions are not good when one does not have electricity. It might have been long but we have done our best to ensure that we update them as much as we can. We even share information and everything from Eskom. We are meeting Eskom every week on these matters just so that they appreciate that we are there,” he said.

Buthelezi confirmed a new box was on-site in Draaihoek but was yet to be switched on pending the normalisation process.