Failure to provide basic services has left residents of Emfuleni municipality without hope, many choosing not to pay their bills.
Charles Mabuza, 50, who has lived in Sebokeng all his life, said residents have had to organise their own electrician just to keep the lights working.
“When we call the municipality for any service, they say they are coming or they tell us that they do not have vehicles to attend to the disruption of services,” Mabuza said.
With services halted, less and less people pay their municipal bills. Sebokeng uses prepaid electricity. Water, refuse collection and property rates are billed to residents.
Mabuza said before he joined the indigent list in 2018, his bill stood at about R40,000. “It has been years since I last saw a municipal bill. They have stopped sending it. I do not pay anything because I do not know how much I owe. Many people are in the same position. Most people here do not pay for water and other services. The municipality does not even send meter readers to see the amount of water we use,” Mabuza said.
Another resident who asked not to be named claimed that some residents use illegal vendors to buy power. He said there are people in the township that sell electricity at a very low price.
“If you buy R100 worth of electricity you get one [receipt] for R250. So people who can buy from legitimate vendors they do so. The others like us, who cannot afford electricity, we use these pirates. From these guys you can get electricity for the whole month or even two months at a very low price,” the resident said.
He told Sowetan that the “pirates” send you electricity on the phone and then indicate where the resident has to pay the money. “Others use people called Amahhashi. These are people who collect receipts for payment and also cash and then they send electricity on your phone and you are able to load it. These are our own izinyoka, not the ones who go illegally connecting cables in the township. Here the infrastructure is intact. Our meter boxes are not bridged,” he said.
He said people deposit money at Shoprite Money Market and give receipts to Amahhashi who then send them electricity. No one knows who these people are and how they get the electricity at low prices.
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