A Gauteng man hasn’t been able to move into his new farm as Eskom has been delaying the installation of electricity on his property even though he paid the utility R21,000 for the service nine months ago.
Keitumetse Ntsekisang, 32, has been renting a one-bedroom flat in Vereeniging for some time and has hired people to guard his 3,5-hectare farm in Lindequesdrif near Potchefstroom. Despite Eskom’s transformer situated on his farm’s doorstep, Ntsekisang said Eskom, the only power supplier in the area, has to install cables that would run from the transformer into a metre box in his property for him to have electricity.
However, this has not happened despite his payment of R21,160 in April. Sowetan Consumer has seen his proof of payment to Eskom’s FNB account.
“It’s been a very frustrating situation which got to the point where I threatened to lay a fraud charge against one of the Eskom employees I was dealing with,” said Ntsekisang.
He bought the property about two years ago with the dream of doing livestock farming, hoping that would sustain his family and its future generations. “At the moment I can’t do anything because there is no electricity there. Even the borehole I have installed there is useless without electricity. I have to ask my neighbours for water,” said Ntsekisang.
In March 2020, Ntsekisang started making inquiries about the installation of power on his property at Eskom’s offices in Vereeniging. He was told to apply via email.
“Phindi Lesoeli, an Eskom employee, replied to my application and guided me on how to apply. She said they will come to my property to evaluate for a quotation and they indeed came a month later. I was quoted R21,160 which I had to pay within a month. I paid in April and they said they’d install within four months. I accepted their time frames because that is what they offered me,” said Ntsekisang.
Four months passed and Ntsekisang started to panic, to the point that he started to question the legitimacy of the deal and the banking details he was given after he received the quote.
“In August I contacted Phindi via email and calls but she never responded. Weeks passed without any communication. I got fed up. I started threatening her that I’d open a fraud case against her as she is the one who gave me banking details. To my surprise somebody else from her office replied saying I couldn’t open such as case against an employee because the bank details she gave me were for Eskom and not an individual. I was desperate and all I wanted from them was the date for the installation,” he said.
Ntsekisang said the installation has so far been delayed three times and the excuses given range from lack of material to Eskom not having a contractor to carry out the job.
In its response to Sowetan Consumer, Eskom said it has been experiencing challenges with limited stock levels which resulted in the delay of new electricity connections.
“This is because of a high incidence of equipment that failed/exploded due to network overload resulting from illegal connections, meter bypasses and tampering and unauthorised operations on the Eskom infrastructure.
“Although Eskom has relatively stable levels of critical material in stock, it remains faced with high demands for equipment that require repairs or replacement, making it difficult to meet the demand – and this includes customers who require new connections. This challenge has been exacerbated by the national lockdown which has affected the production of the much needed electrical equipment, which in turn distressed the entire industry. This has resulted in a backlog which we are currently addressing,” said the utility’s spokesperson Amanda Qithi.
She said the utility has been working closely with manufacturers for a faster turnaround time.
“Once more, we wish to apologise to our customers who are affected by the above-mentioned challenges and want to assure them that we are doing all we can to ensure that we render the service they are paying for,” said Qithi.
“We have also investigated the case of Mr Keitumetse Ntsekisang and apologise for the inconvenience the waiting has caused him. We are looking into fast tracking this case and we can commit that the connection will be completed by the end of this month (January). The Customer Acquisition Manager, Nomfi Nomjana will be in touch with him and will ensure that he is kept up to date during this process,” she added.
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