Pensioner without electricity for four months

A Khayelitsha pensioner has been left without electricity in her home for four months and despite many complaints to Eskom, she continues to be left in the dark.

When Vukani visited Nomasekantsi Pula on Monday May 27, her Kuyasa home was dark and quiet.

The 76-year-old said her problems started in February when a faulty cable that supplied electricity to her house partially burnt out.

She immediately logged the problem with Eskom and was told they would attend to it.

But she said she is still waiting. She said Eskom vehicles and workers had passed her house and refused to help her even though she had a reference number.

She said she had visited the Eskom Khayelitsha offices numerous times but still nothing had been done.

“I have to hand-wash my clothes and I like to really scrub my clothes so my hands end up getting sore.

“Now I have to buy gas to cook and it is expensive and my only source of income is an old age pension grant.

“At night, I sit up and worry all the time that somebody will break in while I’m sitting in the dark.

“Every time that I see these vehicles from Eskom and tell them of my problem they keep telling me that they are coming back.

“The last time I was at their offices, I told them that I'm not going to come back here again.

“If I had money I would go to Bellville in their head offices but I hear that there is a long queue and I cannot stand in a queue because of my legs,” she said.

In a statement, Eskom, said Ms Pula's account had been flagged as a "low buyer" and the Eskom meter linked to it had been disconnected.

In such cases, the affected meter would usually be investigated in seven days but in areas with major backlogs of faults, such as Khayelitsha, that could take longer, the statement said.

It added that Eskom was cracking down on electricity theft, and it looked for abnormalities in electricity consumption patterns to identify illegal activity such as the use of illegal electricity tokens, which did not register on the Eskom system. That could lead to accounts being flagged as "low buyer" and possibly disconnected.

Ward councillor Lonwabo Mqina said he heard about Ms Pula’s plight from volunteers doing door-to-door visits and he would take up the matter with Eskom and ensure that the matter was resolved.