Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has vowed to deploy more Eskom officials in Orlando, Soweto at the Orlando East Communal Hall, Sports and Recreation Centre, for residents to be able to upgrade their prepaid meters in time for the November 24 cut off deadline.
This follows after the death of a man who died while on the queue waiting to be assisted. Residents have been complaining about the slow pace of services at the community centre.
Joburg City Power has also extended working hours to 7pm, vowing evening staff would also work to assist people over the weekend.
A Soweto man died while queuing outside the centre in a bid to upgrade his prepaid electricity meter ahead of the November 24 cut off.
Queuing residents said they witnessed the man collapse to his death and said his body had been removed by authorities on Thursday morning.
Orlando residents said they had been queuing at the centre since 4am, with some claiming to have slept outside the centre to get service.
Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa visited the centre to monitor the upgrade process and engage with locals.
As he entered inside the centre, concerned residents complained to him about the slow pace of the upgrading process and demanded an extension as the deadline was looming.
Ramokgopa admitted that there were delays and attributed them to a shortage of workers as there were only three women assisting over 500 people.
“I can see that there are long queues outside and inside the centre, and there are only three people working. They are trying, but they are not enough,” he said.
To address this issue, Ramokgopa has vowed to deploy more Eskom to fast-track the process.
“I will send more officials to come and help you with this, so that the process can move fast and decrease the long waiting period and long queues. This is an urgent matter, I can see that," Ramokgopa said.
He expressed his sympathies to the family of the deceased man who died while on the queue waiting to be assisted and announced that he would meet with his family.
“I am very saddened by his death and my sincere condolences to his family. I will meet with his family tomorrow,” he said.
Ramokgopa also extended working hours at the centre to 7pm to ease the backlog.
“We are not going to close at 4pm, but we will push until the evening so that everyone can get assistance because this is a big problem,” Ramokgopa said.
Just a few minutes after Ramokgopa left the centre, an elderly woman collapsed while waiting in the queue to be assisted.
Emergency services were called to attend to her and was then rushed to hospital.
Resident Martha Raphiri, 59, told IOL News that a woman had collapsed earlier in the morning while on the queue.
“Even in the morning she collapsed. I suspect she is diabetic because after she woke up, she didn’t know where she was and how she arrived at the centre,” she said.
However, Ramokgopa's promises residents voiced concern with the delays and slammed the government's response to the crisis.
“Public servants are just like this, they act when something happens. It's very late for him to send more officials because it is 5.30pm, and still I didn’t get any help,” Raphiri said.
She also criticised the extended hours as insufficient to address the long queues.
Eskom has since urged the public to upgrade their prepaid meters before the deadline, which is approaching on Sunday, November, 24.
The power utility has also warned that failure to upgrade the meters would result in a cost consumers about R12,000 to replace the meter.
IOL News