KEY POINTS
- Municipalities owe Eskom R2.2 billion, affecting power supply stability.
- Illegal connections and vandalism worsen transformer failures and outages.
- Eskom plans a five-year audit to fix meter bypasses.
KwaZulu-Natal Eskom executives have listed the difficulties they encounter, including R2.2 billion in municipal debt.
Eskom battles rising municipal debt in KwaZulu-Natal
According to Marlaine Nair, chair of the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Portfolio Committee of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, the committee asked Eskom to provide a briefing on the problem of damaged energy transformers that have caused power outages in certain areas.
“In order to gather input and work toward overall improvement, the committee also shared issues brought up by the public and council members with Eskom,” Nair stated.
According to her, Eskom is attempting to remedy a number of issues, such as claims of technical corruption, slow response times, recalcitrant employees, and complaints of power outages that are fixed days after they are reported.
According to Nair, Eskom received an R30 million loan from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to replace transformers that had been stolen or damaged.
“We wanted to find out if this would be a continuous arrangement because it is not sustainable,” she added, adding that the Cabinet has reimbursed the department for the sum.
Eskom takes action to digitize and improve response times
Eskom has made progress toward digitization, she continued, but many consumers still prefer face-to-face communication when they need help.
As a committee, we have built a connection with Eskom, and we will keep doing so. Nair stated, “Eskom has also acknowledged our issues and promised to address them.
As of December 2024, Newcastle, Msunduzi, Mpofana, Ulundi, Endumeni, and Mthonjaneni are among the KwaZulu-Natal municipalities that owe Eskom money.
Eskom apparently has a solid working relationship with eThekwini Municipality, one of its biggest clients.
Eskom and the municipality are attempting to address a number of issues, including street lighting, the Key Revision Number (KRN) rollover scheme, and illegal electrical connections in some eThekwini wards. The KwaZulu-Natal branch of Eskom is in charge of maintaining the province’s infrastructure and providing electricity to 1.3 million consumers.
Illegal connections, theft, vandalism, subcontractors requesting 30% of Eskom projects, energy losses, overloading transformers, and safety hazards in high-crime areas that hinder employees from fixing problems are the main problems affecting Eskom in KwaZulu-Natal.
There are more underground cable networks on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast than the rest of the province, according to Eskom, and wires are regularly stolen and trashed.
Additionally, according to the power company, some subcontractors disregard Eskom’s policies and minimal standards. According to reports, they have demanded employment, halted electrification projects, and insisted on determining their own pricing.
Eskom is to examine and normalize all meter bypasses and failures in KwaZulu-Natal as part of a five-year commitment to remedy these problems.
In order to conduct audits and take remedial action, the company is also monitoring smart meters to identify consumers who cease buying electricity.
