By STAFF REPORTER
Farmers in North West said the fragmentary load shedding continues to have a negative bearing on their productions. This comes after more than 40 000 chickens died allegedly due to electricity supply disruptions at the Frangipani Boerdery farm in Lichtenburg.
Now, a poultry farmer, Herman Du Preez said, he is suing Eskom for R1.5 million as a recourse. Du Preez further said the problems started in mid-December after their transformer broke down.
“I filled in a form with Eskom for loss of income. The number of volts that we received in our lines, differs from 410 to 330. So all our lines were not consistent with power.
“The problem started to appear on 14 December 2022. So, the transformer on our line broke down and since then, Eskom has put us on another line. However, our voltage fluctuated so much and that caused a failure on our computer in my chicken house,” he said.
Du Preez added, the computer allegedly failed to respond due to insufficient power. He alleged that, this led to the loss of his chickens.
“At this point, it is difficult to know the exact death toll as chickens are still dying. The birds were not ready to be slaughtered, but if they were ready to be slaughtered I would have lost from R1.6 to R1.8 million.
“We called Eskom and reported this voltage problem, but they failed to fix it. We can’t continue like this as we stand to lose everything. Our farms and motors, everything is on the line here,” said. Du Preez.
However, Eskom’s Customer Relations Manager in North West, Ezekiel Baruti, blamed the incident on copper theft and said they are investigating.
“Eskom always responds to and addresses the supply interruptions on the network. In some cases, alternative supply points are used to restore power supply to the customers as quickly as possible, while repairs are being arranged.
“So, during November and December 2022, we experienced ongoing copper theft and vandalism on the infrastructure resulting in intermittent power supply,” Baruti said.
He said, the area is currently running at normal capacity, however, intermittent supply has been an issue due to theft and vandalism. Baruti said, with technicians already dispatched on-site to work on the problem, power will be restored to its normal operation.
“The claim forms have already been forwarded to the customer, upon receipt of the completed form. Eskom will embark on its technical investigation.
“Once a report with recommendations has been completed and sent to the claims committee, feedback on whether the claim has been entertained or rejected will be provided to the customer in writing,” he said.
Baruti said, at this stage, they do not want to pre-empt what kind of decision the Claims Committee will be. He said the claims process normally entails the technical report of what has been looked into by the multi-disciplinary team of experts.
He also refuted claims that, Eskom is reactive instead of being proactive to avoid unfortunate situations.
“Eskom does not wait for an unfortunate incident to happen before it acts. And indeed, Eskom tries to address defects found from the inspections it conducts on sites,” he said.
The Guardian 