Complaint: 7 Weeks Without Electricity!!!!!

I am writing to you in regards to Eskom frustrating matter concerning my home (191 Ku Ntselamanzi Township, Alice) that has been going on for more than 7 weeks without any resolution. Mid-June 2020 a truck that was passing by our home accidentally smashed Eskom pole not far from my home. This led to a power outage on couple of houses nearby including my home. Eskom was phoned immediately to sort out the problem, they came and all other houses had electricity restored except for my home. Eskom was phoned again to inform them that the electricity was not restored at our home.

Eskom sent a technician to check what the problem was and to resolve it accordingly. However, the technician came and left without resolving the matter. We phoned again to find out why the electricity was not restored; we were told that there is ******* connection that took place at our home. There are two boxes (conventional and prepaid) and this is not supposed to be the case. Basically when we converted from conventional to prepaid, conventional box was supposed to be removed. I then asked them who’s problem is it if a conventional box was not removed after installing a pre-paid box, because I understand that it is Eskom’s responsibility to ensure they remove the conventional box when installing a pre-paid box. In any case the technician that installed the pre-paid box left us with a copy of MMF (Meter Movement Form). They admitted the problem was on their side however they never fixed the problem. At this stage Eskom staff in Alice were so dismissive, they told me that they are closing the case because there is an outstanding balance on our Eskom account. I then asked them how come we have an outstanding whereas we are using pre-paid electricity. The very next day after this call we received a conventional bill from Eskom of R21 454.84 back dated to 2010.

This was shocking to us because in 2010 November we requested Eskom to disconnect electricity because there was no one staying in the house at the time. They definitely did disconnect the electricity immediately. In 2019 we found a tenant to rent the house, we requested Eskom again to reconnect electricity and convert conversional to pre-paid of which they did reconnect. Now, how is it possible that we have a bill of R21 454.84 dating back to 2010 whereas the electricity was disconnected during this time. We phoned Eskom call centre to try find resolution to this matter, they escalated it to investigation department. Investigation Department phoned us to understand the background of the case, they told us that a technician will be sent to go take pictures of the boxes. We are not getting any updates on what is happening, we have not received feedback on the last email sent.

There has been no power for the past 7 weeks. I don’t know how many times I had to call Eskom in regards to this matter. We are not getting any resolution. We have a tenant staying at the house with kids and they have been without electricity throughout this winter period.

Below are all the Eskom reference numbers that I was given by Eskom related to this case, the last one being the latest: *********************91(Latest: 06.08.2020) The last person whom we were liaising with is Nomhle Jobela. After giving the background to the matter, she never came back to us. We need your help to resolve this matter with Eskom so that we can have power restored.