Residents living in Wesbank queued outside the area’s multipurpose centre on Thursday morning demanding help after being without electricity for days.
According to the residents, they need to re-register their Eskom electricity meter boxes by entering three tokens consisting of 60 numbers. But when trying to load new tokens, their electricity does not reflect on the meter box.
Resident Erica Louw says: “Eskom is a problem, the people are queuing here because their electricity box needs to be registered. When you buy electricity you get a slip with four lines consisting of numbers.
“The three lines are the ‘tokens’ and the fourth line is the electricity you bought, but the issue is the numbers do not work.”
Some residents complained that they already entered the 60 numbers, but still can’t load their newly-bought electricity.
Many have been given reference numbers, but yesterday mense became gatvol because they had been standing outside in the hot sun in long queues since Wednesday.
First in line was Auntie Ann who said she had been waiting outside the centre since 5am.
Auntie Ann said: “I am sick of this mess in this community. My problem is that my electricity does not load. I got my token numbers, but it still doesn’t work and there is no power at the moment.”
Second in line was Emelda van Wyk who said: “I bought electricity, but when I punch in the tokens there is nothing.”
The City of Cape Town referred queries to Eskom – the area’s power supplier.
Eskom said it was currently in the process of rolling out its Key Revision Number Rollover project and was aware that certain customers have been experiencing problems in recoding their meters.
Customers are encouraged to download the MyEskom Customer App to log a fault, or contact the Share Call number on 08600 37566 or email [email protected].
Eskom says: “All meters found to be faulty will be replaced at no cost to the customer.”