Aspiring farmer Keitumetse Ntsekisang, 32, is overjoyed and looking forward to moving into his plot after months of struggling to get Eskom to install electricity on his farm despite paying more than R21,000 to the utility.
Ntsekisang approached Sowetan Consumer two weeks ago for intervention when his application for an electricity installation hit a snag after he had paid R21,160 for the installation in April last year.
Sowetan published his plight last week. Eskom claimed that it had challenges securing equipment to install electricity for its new customers like Ntsekisang.
The utility’s spokesperson, Amanda Qithi, said: “This is because of a high incidence of equipment that failed or 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.”
Ntsekisang said managers at the Vereeniging office where he had applied in March last year also started ignoring his calls and emails until he threatened to make a complaint of fraud against the utility towards the end of the year.
He bought the property in Lindequesdrif, near Potchefstroom, two years ago and it did not have electricity, which meant that he couldn’t move in and had to rent a one-bedroom flat in Vereeniging.
What annoyed him the most was that the transformer box was just across the road from his gate.
However, the utility started attending to his matter a few days after Sowetan contacted it.
“After that I saw them [Eskom employees] coming to my property to install cables from the transformer into my property. They also installed a meter box. About 95% of the work is done and it took them a day to do it. There is electricity but now I still need to get an electrician to connect electricity from the box into my house,” he told Sowetan Consumer on Sunday.
He plans to move into his property permanently in the coming months to start farming.
“I’m over the moon to have electricity. I have been renting a flat for a while now and I always felt bad about it because I already have a property that I own but I couldn’t move into it because of electricity. Electricity plays a big role to me because I couldn’t even use the borehole and I had to beg my neighbours for water.
“I’m happy now that I can finally move into my own farm and do what I always wanted to do – livestock farming and create wealth for my family,” said Ntsekisang.
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