Eskom office closure worries residents
The Khayelitsha Development Forum has echoed the City of Cape Town’s plea to Eskom not to close local service hubs.
The power utility has started permanently closing its community service centres from June 28.
KDF chairperson Nodumo Khutuka expressed her dismay with the decision saying there was no consultation.
“Eskom should have approached community leaders before doing this. Now our people have to travel to Bellville when they have queries,” said Mr Khutuka.
Mayco committee for energy Beverly van Reenen also expressed her concern.
“During the last quarterly bilateral meeting between the City and Eskom, I expressed my concern about the closure plans and the impact on customers in Eskom-supply areas. It is our expressed view that the permanent closure of service hubs without adequate measures in place for all communities will affect access to electricity services for many Cape Town residents, particularly for the most vulnerable communities who rely on Eskom’s frontline services,” she said.
When Vukani visited the Khayelitsha hub service on Monday, scores of people with electricity complaints were told the offices were closed by a security guard. He gave them a piece of paper with instructions on how to use and download the Alfred chatbot for fault reporting.
A visibly frustrated pensioner, Thobile Ngundze, said he has been without electricity for a week.
“I bought electricity voucher but the meter doesn’t accept it. I don’t know how to use what they say we must use to get help,” he said.
Qaphelani Kobese said he was lucky because his children helped him to phone the numbers given.
“I spent R70 worth of airtime on a call but luckily my query was resolved after a few minutes. I am sure many people will struggle with the new arrangement,” he said.
The City is not convinced that the chatbot will provide sufficient access to all communities. Ms Van Reenen said the City has seen a notable increase in Eskom-related complaints to City customer channels
“Many of our elected public representatives as well as City staff end up grappling with those service requests, often having to appease irate communities for Eskom-matters. We believe the permanent closure of service hubs could not only worsen the situation, but could also lead to public unrest. It is within that context that we asked for an immediate suspension of Eskom’s decision to close service hubs,” she added.
Eskom provincial spokeperson Kyle Cookson said the walk-in centres would be replaced by pop-up offices.
“Regular updates about the pop-up office will be posted on social media platforms for customers to diarise when we will be in their community,” said Mr Cookson.
