Eskom on Thursday disconnected power supply to residents of Lakeside Extension 1 and 2 in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, due to non-payment and the non-purchasing of electricity tokens.
This disconnection will affect 2,686 households.
Earlier in the week, residents of Lakeside Extension 2 violently stopped Eskom from conducting audits and disconnections in the area. Eskom employees were chased out of the area, the power utility said.
Eskom said the disconnection of customers who were not paying for their services has been intensified across Gauteng in Eskom's areas of supply.
“These measures have been put in place to ensure that the services we render are paid for by all customers and to ascertain our sustainability as a business,” Eskom said in a statement.
Eskom said Orange Farm was one of the areas which had a high rate of non-payment and non-buying of electricity and the power utility said it was not in a position to continuously provide services because failure to buy or pay for electricity increased operational costs.
“The electricity disconnections come after extensive engagements with the affected communities requesting them to pay for the services rendered,” said Motlhabane Ramashi, Eskom's senior manager for maintenance and operations in Gauteng.
Ramashi urged affected customers to visit Eskom to make payment arrangements or to deal with issues affecting their accounts.
