Load reduction reflects failure to expand electricity supply: Ngwane

The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee and the United Front’s Trevor Ngwane say load reduction reflects government’s and Eskom’s failure to expand electricity supply at a rate that meets the needs of the masses.

Dr Ngwane made an oral submission at the load reduction inquiry in Sandton, Johannesburg.

The three-day inquiry, led by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is investigating the impact of load reduction on poor and historically disadvantaged communities.

Eskom attributes load reduction to illegal connections and electricity theft among others.

“If you don’t upgrade the infrastructure in a township in Gauteng, where there’s a lot of people giving birth, migration, and then the substation and the transformer is left. Not only is it left in the same condition, it is not even maintained. You’re going to have problems and then you use that, your own failures as a justification for load reduction,” Ngwane explains.

Video: Load Reduction Inquiry – Community activist testifies at SAHRC hearing