Scores of angry community members of Bekkersdal informal settlement in the West Rand marched to Eskom’s headquarters in Sunninghill on 11 November to demand that the power utility electrify the area as agreed.
Community members arrived in buses and staged a protest outside Eskom, and handed over a letter of demands to the utility’s management. They blocked off the office park’s entrance chanting and singing songs.
Community leader and spokesperson of the informal settlement, Tshediso Monare accused the power utility of failing to keep its promise to electrify the entire informal settlement as it apparently agreed upon.
“As a matter of fact, Eskom has failed to electrify Bekkersdal Informal Settlement for the past three and half decades. It was only until the community decided to take the matter into their own hands through protest in 2018 that they came to the party. They have also failed to meet their target in upgrading the local substation in the area,” he claimed.
Monare added that they were giving the power utility seven days to respond to their letter of demands.
“We demand an immediate continuation of the contractual obligation… We give Eskom one week to respond to our demands or we will come back here in double numbers to demands our right to electricity as residents of Bekkersdal informal settlement.”
Communication and stakeholder relations practitioner at Eskom, Ronel Kotze said, “Eskom is in the process to formulate a response to the community regarding their demands. As a result, Eskom wishes to reserve comment until the formal response is formulated as the matter affect various stakeholders.”
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