Load reduction implemented by Eskom has been put on halt for 14 days effective March 25.
This was after a month-long protest by residents who took to the streets demanding for the implemented load reduction to be scrapped.
The agreement was reached during a recent community meeting facilitated by the City of Ekurhuleni’s chief whip of council, Clr Khetha Shandu.
Load reduction is implemented in response to the high LV transformer failures in the affected areas mainly due to the overloading of the networks.
The failures occur during peak periods, hence the reduction is implemented during the periods from 05:00 to 09:00 and 17:00 to 21:00.
There were four pertinent issues, load reduction, an ultimatum proposed by Eskom to implement load reduction until they reach 50% of their revenue collection from residents.
They also discussed the scourge of buying electricity from ghost vendors and the continuation of disconnecting illegal electricity connections.
In a statement, the metro explained it was agreed all their challenges will be addressed to allow Eskom to effect system preservation to avoid damages to the electrical equipment.
“They will affect credit control measures, given that Eskom has been running at a loss from these two communities.
“It was also agreed that as of March 28, Eskom will send its officials to be based at the Tsakani and Duduza customer care centres to respond to community queries with reference numbers,” explained Zweli Dlamini, the metro’s spokesperson.
Eskom has also committed that it will continue to monitor electricity use through a continuation of audits, normalising cutting off illegal connections and encouraging the community to buy electricity from registered vendors.
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