To ease the impact of Covid-19 on indigent households, Eskom will be giving away free electricity. Eskom launched its communication campaign aimed at raising awareness of the long-standing Free Basic Electricity (FBE) programme with various municipalities.
It is targeted at giving limited free electricity to indigent households.Those who qualify are the unemployed, low-earning, destitute and elderly in terms of the Municipal Indigent Policy.
Those qualifying are encouraged to approach their municipalities to register as indigents to collect their allocated free basic electricity every month.
According to Eskom, this is another way to lessen the impact of the economic crisis on households through the provision of FBE.
Customers on municipalities’ indigent household registers have the right to collect a minimum of 50 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity for free every month.
“Unfortunately, several indigent households do not exercise their right, either because they are unaware of the free basic electricity, or because they have not registered with the municipality,” said Modjadji Baloyi of Eskom Limpopo.
She said an average of 17 per cent(19 830) of identified indigents in Limpopo, in Eskom-supplied areas, and 116 651 identified indigents supplied by the municipalities, are not collecting their FBE.
“Through raising awareness of this benefit it is our wish to increase the level of collection and thereby relieve some of the strain experienced by low-income households. Customers who have been advised by their respective municipalities that they do qualify for the FBE benefit are urged to not let this relief go to waste. To claim the benefit, customers should visit their nearest vendor.
“Alternatively, USSD codes *130*869# or *130*269# are already configured for customers to claim the benefit via cellphone at no charge to the customer.
Customers who wish to ascertain whether they qualify for the FBE benefit should do so by contacting their local municipality, local ward councillor or a community development worker.
Baloyi concluded by urging customers to be on the lookout for illegal connections and those who tamper with meters.
“These are criminal acts which rob communities of stable electricity supply. Should the community witness such acts, we urge them to send an anonymous SMS to Eskom’s crime line on 322-11 to report them.”
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