Parliament, Friday, 24 March 2017 – The Portfolio Committees on Public Enterprises and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) have assured residents of Soweto that their concerns about the manner in which Eskom rolled out the prepaid metering programme will be discussed further in Parliament, with a view to reaching a lasting solution.
“We have heard the cries from the people of Diepkloof and Orlando East regarding the installation of prepaid electricity meters, among other concerns levelled against Eskom. We have also heard Eskom’s responses. Ours is to now take this information to Parliament, deliberate on it and come up with recommendations on how these concerns should be addressed,” said Public Enterprises Committee Chairperson Ms Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba.
The Committees visited Gauteng this week, where it engaged with residents following a petition in which Soweto residents asked Parliament to intervene in a dispute between Eskom and residents over the installation of prepaid electricity meters.
Among the issues residents are complaining about are that they were not adequately consulted when the decision to install these meters was taken and they were not given an opportunity to choose between the prepaid and conventional systems. Residents said these meters were forcefully installed by Eskom, a claim Eskom denies.
Although the Committees are yet to deliberate and make recommendations on this matter, Members of Parliament at these hearings were unanimously concerned about the existence of a communication gap between Eskom and the concerned residents. As such, the Committees said there is a need for Eskom to develop a comprehensive communication and public participation strategy, so as to educate residents about the advantages and disadvantages of the prepaid electricity meters and conventional system. This, according to the Committees, will ensure that community members take informed decisions and will also help to eliminate any misunderstandings between the parties. Other recommendations will be contained in the Committees’ report that would be formulated after deliberations in Parliament.
“Once we are done with our processes in Parliament, we will then communicate our recommendations to the affected parties. Further details regarding this process will be communicated in due course,” said Committee Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Richard Mdakane.
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