Lerato Mbhiza
Eskom is Investigating allegations of corruption after residents of Dobsonville Soweto made startling claims that went viral on social media, that some of the power utility employees were colluding with a ward councilor to damage infrastructure and then demand payment from the residents to fix it.
Eskom’s Gauteng spokesperson, Amanda Qithi said the power utility condemns threats against its employees who work in the area and are conducting disconnections according to the power utility’s processes.
“Until allegations leveled against these employees are proven true, we urge communities to treat our employees as innocent. Threatening someone’s life is a serious criminal offence which Eskom is not taking lightly,” said Qithi.
She said the procedural disconnection of the network in the affected parts of Dobsonville is due to low purchases of electricity resulting in revenue and energy losses.
“This process is implemented across Gauteng to prevent equipment failure and revenue loss in areas where there is a risk of electricity infrastructure exploding or failing as a result of illegal activities such as tampering, bypassing of meters and illegal connections, which lead to network overloading.
“The mini substations which were switched off in Dobsonville were subsequently vandalised. To repair the vandalised electricity infrastructure, a 60% threshold of affected customers need to pay a minimum deposit of R500.00 towards the total remedial fee of R6052.00 for illegal connections, meter bypassing and tampering, as well as purchasing of electricity tokens from illegal vendors,” she added.
Qithi assured residents that Eskom does not handle cash at any of its offices, and none of its employees or contractors collects electricity payments from customers.
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