Eskom to disconnect illegally-connected households in Soweto – report
If the reports are true, then Eskom could ruin the upcoming festive season for around 60% of households in Soweto.
Eskom to pull the plug on Soweto households
According to reports, Eskom has indicated that it will move to disconnect electricity from at least 60% of the 200 000 Soweto households that have prepaid meters.
The reason for this, the power utility says, is due to the fact that a majority of the households use illegal connections, further harming the already-vulnerable power grid.
Eskom is disconnecting electricity of some households in Soweto. 99% of Soweto gets power directly from Eskom.
— OnPoint (@OnPointSABC) November 22, 2019
Almost 200 000 households have prepaid meters.
Eskom says 60% percent of these households are guilty of some form of tampering. #sabcnews
These reports come weeks after the South Gauteng High Court dismissed an application lodged by Soweto residents in an attempt to force Eskom to reconnect the hundreds of households that were disconnected in May.
According to court documents, the residents are demanding immediate reconnection to the grid and a monthly settlement fee of R100 as compensation of their debt.
Represented by Lungelo Lethu Human Rights Foundation (LLHRF), the residents stated that they are willing to pay their debts to Eskom. However, it would have to be at the above-mentioned flat rate, irrespective of electricity consumption.
The residents’ case was kicked out due to the amateurish contents of the papers submitted by LLHRF leader, King Sibiya, who has risen to represent the Soweto residents without prior legal experience.
As of 30 June, Soweto owes Eskom R18.9 billion in unpaid bills.
Load shedding updates: No planned outages on Friday, 22 November
Eskom issued a statement, on Friday, noting that the system remins “constrained and vulnerable”. The power utility revealed that breakdowns, at 10 800MV, occurred at around 06:00 but the threat was not great enough to call for power outages.
“The probability of load shedding remains, but will only be implemented if absolutely necessary. There is sufficient diesel for our open cycle gas turbines and water at the pumped storage schemes to supplement the shortage of capacity, if required,” Eskom said.
#POWERALERT 1
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) November 22, 2019
Date: 22 November 2019
No loadshedding expected today, despite a constrained and vulnerable system pic.twitter.com/pL3qkdRkV5
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