WATCH | ‘Why we refuse to pay for electricity’ — Tshepisong residents

Some residents in a Johannesburg west township who have not paid for electricity for more than a year, and where only 11% of the population pays for power, have blamed City Power for their continued refusal to pay for the service.

Tshepisong residents said they do not mind paying for electricity, but City Power’s delayed response to faulty transformers and repeated power outages has driven some households to paying.

They said they were recently left without electricity for more than a month after City Power stopped supplying the area.

City Power had previously reported that only 3% of customers in Tshepisong were paying for electricity, with most of those customers businesses.

However, City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the situation had since improved, with the area’s active electricity vending rate increasing to about 11%.

Mangena attributed the improvement to an electricity imbizo held in the area on August 27 with Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero and City Power officials asking residents to pay. Mangena said the figure was likely to increase as the entity continued with its normalisation programme.

“Normalisation is the process through which electricity supply is formalised in communities affected by widespread meter bypassing, illegal connections and low vending patterns.

“The process includes the installation of prepaid meters after the repair or replacement of damaged infrastructure after an outage.”

Last month City Power withdrew services in the area, saying it was due to continued acts of sabotage, widespread illegal electricity connections and the repeated unlawful reconnection of infrastructure that has not yet been commissioned.

However, the power utility later rescinded the decision and continued to service the area despite few residents paying.

Speaking to Sowetan, Tshepisong residents said their failure to pay was linked to the unreliable electricity supply.

Paul Radebe told Sowetan after spending a month without electricity, households were required to make payments before their supply was restored.

“We had to go to Pick n Pay to pay for electricity, and each household paid between R200 and R500. I think after several of us had paid, that’s when they came and needed to see proof of purchase before switching the lights on,” he said.

“We don’t have a problem with paying for electricity and we will always make a plan.”

Resident Jose Matate said residents had previously been willing to pay but became frustrated by delays in repairing transformers and repeated power interruptions.

“We used to pay for electricity in my house, but the power would switch off or transformers would trip. We would stay without electricity even though we had bought it.

“Because this would happen almost every day, we got to a point where we said we would no longer pay because we didn’t have power,” Matate said.

He said the situation had discouraged residents from continuing to buy electricity because they would have credit on their prepaid meters while their homes remained without power for days.

“We had to buy wood and paraffin to cook, but we had already bought electricity,” he said.

Mangena said the challenges in Tshepisong could not be resolved simply by switching off the electricity supply.

“Tshepisong faces a combination of challenges that are closely connected. These include extremely low electricity vending, illegal connections, widespread meter bypassing, vandalism, tampering and damage to the electricity infrastructure,” he said.

He said the situation had resulted in City Power facing not only low revenue collection, but also a network under severe pressure and repeatedly damaged by illegal connections and infrastructure vandalism.

While Tshepisong has seen an improvement in its vending rate, Mangena said Alexandra remained another area facing serious challenges with electricity payments.

He said like Tshepisong, only 11% of residents are paying electricty.

Pennyville near Soweto, which also used to have a low number of people paying for electricity, has improved with 57% now buying power.

Mangena said City Power was taking steps to encourage residents to return to legal electricity vending.