City of Cape Town condemns decision and says there is a "notable increase" in complaints from customers supplied directly by Eskom
- The City of Cape Town has condemned Eskom's decision to close its Khayelitsha and Bellville community service centres.
- Eskom has said it will replace these with pop-up offices and digital services like the Alfred the Chatbot.
- Cape Town residents are battling with electricity service issues in areas supplied directly by Eskom.
Eskom service centres in Khayelitsha and Bellville, Cape Town, will close on Friday.
Eskom customers will be left with pop-up offices and the online fault report service, Alfred the Chatbot.
City of Cape Town Mayco member for energy Beverley van Reenen said about 70% of the metro is supplied by the City, and the rest is powered and serviced by Eskom, including Delft, Khayelitsha, and Bellville.
In a statement on Wednesday, the City called on Eskom not to close its service hubs "without adequate measures in place for all communities".
The City said this would "affect access to electricity services for many Cape Town residents, particularly for the most vulnerable communities who rely on Eskom's frontline services". Alfred the Chatbot would not "provide sufficient access", the City said.
The City said that it had seen a "notable increase" in Eskom-related complaints on its customer channels, which had meant that "elected public representatives as well as City staff end up grappling with those service requests, often having to appease irate communities for Eskom matters".
Delft resident Ansel Ackers told GroundUp her home has been without power since 14 May. She said the neighbourhood's power went down, but her neighbours have since regained their electricity.
Ackers said she had logged several faults on the phone with Eskom's helpline but kept on being "told the ticket is closed". She and her husband went into the Bellville office and queued for hours before they were attended to. The problem has still not been resolved.
Van Reenen said the City has seen an increase in complaints about Eskom faults that are not being responded to, and long waiting times for servicing faults. These particularly affect more vulnerable communities who "suffer the most". "We try our best to act as an intermediary," she said.
She said Eskom's proposed pop-up offices would be announced on social media, and many people, especially elderly residents, would be unaware of them.
In response to media queries, Eskom sent GroundUp a statement, saying its "pop-up offices" would mean that Eskom customers "no longer have to travel long distances to Eskom offices", would "ease the financial burden for many who use public transport", and would mean that customers no longer had to wait in long queues to be assisted.
Eskom also said Alfred the Chatbot had "been a resounding success since it went live and still proves to be the most popular channel for customers to log faults".
On its webpage Eskom says: "Eskom wants to minimise queues and delight you as our customer, and thus has launched Alfred the Chatbot. Utilising artificial intelligence to enhance and speed up customer service, Eskom customers can now report a power loss, get a reference number within seconds and get progress feedback on an existing fault - any time of day or night."
GroundUp tried to log a fault for an RDP house in Bardale, Mfuleni, where the power has been off for three weeks. The owner first logged the fault at the Bellville office on 6 June and was sent a reference number by SMS. She has no computer or smartphone or computer literacy, and we tried on her behalf several times on 21 June to follow up the fault report with Alfred, but the interface kept timing out.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
On 26 June we had better luck, with Alfred responding. But Alfred's responses were confusing, opaque and apparently contradictory.
Alfred told us, "We are aware of your fault and a technician will be dispatched", but then in the very next line said, "According to our records this fault has already been attended to and cleared. Should your power still be off we suggest that you re-log this query." It then said the fault is being updated.
We duly re-logged the query, answering numerous prompts and questions. Alfred then told us we had an open fault report and this must be attended to first.
Meanwhile the power remains off in the Bardale household and the family is struggling to afford paraffin for heating and cooking.
