Since the end of February, a family in Khayelitsha has been without electricity after Eskom decided to switch it off. To fight back the son, Shorn Khumalo, took to the matter to the public protector.

Filing the complaint on behalf of his 49-year-old mother, Simone, the saga began when she reported to Eskom that her prepaid meter box was faulty. She was held accountable for the faulty meter, issued with a tampering notice on 5 July 2013, and paid a fee of R2 120 that day.

Now, two years later Eskom, cut their power and did not even warn the family. When they asked Eskom to reconnect them, Eskom not only imposed another tampering fee, but also a reconnection fee R12 000.

What even is that?

Public Protector at the time Thuli Madonsela has delivered her report on the matter, claiming “Eskom’s conduct fell short of the professionalism principles outlined in section 195 of the constitution.”  She said they had been guilty of maladministration and abuse of power.

The report continued:

While Eskom has a legal authority to impose (a) fine for tampering and it may add responsibility to prevent and discourage such criminal action, which leeches on members of the public who duly pay for their electricity, it failed to exercise such power in line with the principles of administrative justice as envisaged in the constitution.

Eskom’s defence relying on the inspection of the box and the purchase history to determine tampering was invalid, as the suspected tampering did not negate the need for fair process to be followed to cut the electricity supply.

I am accordingly unable to arrive at a conclusion other than that Eskom failed to properly exercise its power, and if I may add, responsibility to disconnect illicit or unauthorised consumption of electricity by failing to follow due process.

Madonsela’s remedial action said that Eskom should reconnect the family’s electricity within one day of receiving her report, but according to Shorn, this is yet to happen.

Come on, Eskom. This is the Public Protector we’re talking about. Don’t go all JZ on us and ignore what she has to say.

[source:iol]