Joburg rejects Eskom’s latest scheduled loadshedding
23 October 2021
City of Johannesburg rejects Eskom's latest scheduled loadshedding from 21h00 on Saturday, 23 October 2021.
This is after the City recently secured additional power supply capacity of 220MW from the privately-owned Kelvin Power Station that qualifies it for an exemption from stages 1 and 2 of loadshedding.
The City, through its municipal power utility, City Power, had written a letter to Eskom after concluding the additional capacity power purchase agreement with the Kelvin Power Station to notify the national power utility of the added capacity.
However, on Saturday evening the Johannesburg Executive Mayor, Councillor Mpho Moerane, described Eskom's planned loadshedding in the City as "an unwarranted decision that can not be left unchallenged on behalf of the people of Johannesburg".
"When the City first reached out to Eskom to indicate our additional supply capacity, we were asked for proof in this regard, which we accordingly presented. However, the City never heard from Eskom thereafter until the announcement of the latest scheduled loadshedding from this evening to Monday morning," he said.
Mayor Moerane said: "It looks like Eskom has no intention of serving the people of Johannesburg better after we as a municipality have done everything within our reach to ensure security of power supply. We have recently gone as far as assisting Eskom after the national utility claimed it had left some mini substations and transformers unrepaired for months in mostly poor communities in Johannesburg because it was out of stock."
"If how Eskom treats the City is anything to go by, then it is understandable why Johannesburg residents have so many complaints about the national utility's customer service. Therefore, the City is now prepared to go the legal route to halt Eskom's blanket heavy-handedness against the people of Johannesburg, especially those whose Eskom accounts are up to date," Mayor Moerane said.
Issued by City of Johannesburg, 22 October 2021
