To
Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy
From
Tshepo Mphuthi
Subject
Eskom mini-substation
Date
30 November 2021 2:47 p.m.
Dear Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy,

I reside in Daveyton , Etwatwa(ward 66), ext15,Citicon(Ekurhuleni). Our mini substation blew up on the 26th of July 2021, we haven’t had electricity since then. We engaged with Eskom to install a new one. First thing they did was accuse us of not buying electricity( which is prepaid) and claiming that our compliance is less than 30%. They asked for our meter numbers for houses affected of which we did give. We were told that they don’t have stock of our mini substation and that we have to wait until they have stock. Late September we were told that they now have stock and that before they can install it they need to do an audit first. Again they requested our meter numbers in order to do this and again we provided them with. After concluding their auditing, they now changed their tune from us not buying electricity to issuing fines of R6052.60 per household for “poor purchasing”. Nobody knows what this means as we were not told how much electricity we must buy per month. We buy our prepaid electricity as per each household consumption. Even their auditing is questionable as how was it conducted without physically visiting the houses concerned and checking or observing why maybe they're buying less electricity? Check whether they use solar system or gas stove or heater, and how much time they spend at home to justify this consumption?

Even under this questionable fines, some people did pay their fines and some are also willing to pay. We were promised reinstallation in October but suddenly we are being told that this is not going to happen until 70% of these fines are paid first. This is a violation of our human rights on the highest level. We never signed any contracts with Eskom as a collective. Each household entered into agreement with Eskom as individuals. So they cannot expect the others who paid or willing to pay and those who were compliant to suffer while waiting for their 70% target to be reached first, before installing the mini substation. Eskom must find ways to collect their fines without infringing on other people’s rights to have electricity.

I humbly request that you urgently help us by compelling Eskom to install the mini substation immediately as it has been 5 months now without electricity and at this rate it looks like it’s not going to end anytime soon. The daily suffering is unbearable. Your earliest attention would be appreciated.

Eskom manager in charge - Felix Mthombeni -071 879 2113 email address: MthombFH@eskom.co.za

Kind Regards
Tshepo Mphuthi