One of the main demands behind the rent boycott was ‘no taxation without representation’ including a call for Soweto residents to determine the service charge for electricity and water. At the time, black people paid taxes but did not have a say over their use. The primary aspect of this problem was overcome with the defeat of apartheid and the ushering in of the vote and a democratic order.
The secondary aspect of the problem – affordability - was only partially resolved. Ramaphosa and the Soweto People’s Delegation negotiated a flat rate of R23-50 per household as payment for services including water, electricity and waste removal. Eskom cleverly arranged direct payment to itself rather than through the hated apartheid local government in order to break the impasse. The sweetener was the scrapping of the R500 million arrears amassed during the five-year long boycott.
The deal turned sour a few years later when Eskom reneged on the flat rate agreement and unilaterally began to charge electricity per unit consumed. Accompanying this about-face were tariff increases of over 300% over the next several years for Sowetans. Meanwhile, Nelson Mandela, whose election slogans during the 1994 elections included ‘water and electricity for all’, launched his Masakhane campaign which harangued residents to overcome the ‘culture of non-payment’ and start paying for their services.
Soweto residents had responded well to the flat rate tariff, regularly and faithfully paying their bills. However, difficult economic times, unemployment and exponentially rising tariffs, including inconsistent, inaccurate and inflated billing, led to huge arrears, some of which were outrageous and unpayable. Matters came to a head when Minister Jeff Radebe, then in charge of State enterprises, encouraged Eskom to cut off the electricity supply as a debt collection method. In 1999, Eskom announced that it was cutting off 25 000 households per month in Soweto.
With their backs against the wall, residents began to search for ways to stop the cut-offs. However, Eskom adopted a hardline attitude to community leaders’ appeals to normalise the situation. Soon enough, even those who were paying or who could afford to became discouraged or joined the defensive campaign whose main tactic was resisting cut-offs and re-connecting those who were cut off. For many, electricity payment became optional at best and at worst was seen as a betrayal of the struggle for access to basic services for all.
Corrupt practices by Eskom officials including sub-contractors employed to cut off and reconnect electricity as part of the payment enforcement regime bred cynicism and flouting the law among residents. Poor maintenance of the electricity infrastructure, regular power failures especially in winter, unresponsiveness to complaints by paying customers and many other shortcomings are contributing factors to the R18 billion Eskom claims is owed by Soweto. The unilateral installation of pre-paid meters has sparked off protests leading to the present irretrievable breakdown in relations between Eskom and Soweto.
Paying Eskom is throwing money into a black hole. That is the view from Soweto. Eskom’s business model is hopelessly twentieth century in a world that has changed. More people must buy electricity at increasingly higher prices for this State-owned enterprise to survive. But people who are environmentally woke want to use less not more energy, certainly not electricity generated from burning coal. The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17), the United Nations’ meeting on climate change, came to South Africa in 2011 and inspired a movement demanding a shift to renewable energy led by organisations such as the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee and Earthlife Africa.
The solution for Soweto, and South Africa, is to stop feeding the insatiable and unredeemable fossil-fuel guzzling monster that is Eskom. The cost of putting solar panels on the roof of every house in the township would cost only a fraction of the Soweto debt, but the benefits would be immense.
The recent apartheid-style Eskom tactic of collective punishment by cutting off the power supply for weeks in Soweto is not a solution. It is leading us back to the dark ages. Solar energy for Sowetans would make the sun shine again for this long-suffering community.
Ramaphosa’s new dawn should save the earth and not destroy it with Eskom’s carbon emissions.
Written by Trevor Ngwane: Activist, Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee