Consumer outrage

The Empangeni Council offices were bursting at the seams with irate ratepayers on Friday

Consumer anger and frustration reached boiling point at clogged up municipal offices in Richards Bay and Empangeni on Friday as confused residents scrambled to buy pre-paid electricity. At both locations hundreds of consumers suffered long queues - some for up to four hours - and became hot under the collar, blaming the uMhlathuze Municipality of unfair practices and lack of communication. This after all accounts were blocked to prevent people from buying large amounts of electricity before the 32.29% tariff increase on 1 July. Normally pre-paid electricity can be bought from vendors across the city, but since last Friday all accounts at these outlets have been blocked. ‘There was no warning, just an SMS on Friday, and now because the municipality is understaffed we are forced to wait,’ said Empangeni resident John Bozas. ‘I do feel sorry for the staff, because apparently there have been IT problems aggravating the situation,’ he said. ‘I am very worried by the poor administration of our municipality,’ said Sigogo Mkhwanazi. Another resident complained that they were first forced to stand in a queue to unblock their accounts and then an even longer queue to purchase electricity.

Lack of communication
In Richards Bay several consumers said they tried to purchase electricity tokens at vendors in the CBD, only to be told their accounts were blocked. Not aware of the restrictions, customers feared the worst and flocked to the municipal offices to rectify the problem and purchase electricity tokens before the weekend. ‘We are forced to stand here because we are not sure of the status of our accounts - blocked or unblocked,’ said one annoyed resident. ‘We can’t take the chance, if our account is blocked and we try to purchase over the weekend and can’t, what then?’ Others voiced concerns for the poor. ‘If poor people who can only afford to buy R20 electricity at a time have their account blocked, they have to travel to town to unblock it before making a purchase, eventually costing them more.’ Addressing the gathering crowd, a municipal official told them there were no blockages, but only restriction limits on pre-paid electricity purchases. He assured them the offices would be open on certain times over the weekend. By the end of the business day on Friday, office doors were promptly closed at 3pm despite long queues still awaiting service.

Municipal response
As reported in the Zululand Observer last week, Acting City Manager Nkosinathi Nhleko said in a press release the decision to limit purchases was done to ‘mitigate the municipality’s financial risk associated with consumers exploiting the opportunity of paying for electricity at current prices’. He said the municipality was already purchasing electricity from Eskom at the higher price. The reason for not giving customers warning of the decision, was that ‘the municipality felt this would have defeated the object’. The legality of the municipality’s decision is still in dispute.