Eskom is investigating allegations of corruption made against its employees in some parts of Soweto. This comes after residents of Dobsonville took to social media to complain about the power utility's employees being corrupt.

Residents claim that the power utility employees are colluding with a ward councillor to switch off and damage electricity infrastructure and demand that customers pay for repairs. Eskom spokesperson Amanda Qithi said the power utility is investigating the allegations levelled against its employees. "The power utility will not stop until it gets to the root of these allegations," she said. However, Qithi said that Eskom has been conducting procedural disconnection of the network in the affected parts of Dobsonville due to low purchases of electricity resulting in high revenue and energy losses in the area. "This process is implemented across Gauteng to prevent equipment failure and revenue loss in areas where there is a risk of electricity infrastructure exploding or failing as a result of illegal activities such as tampering, bypassing of meters and illegal connections which lead to network overloading," Qithi added.

Eskom further condemned the threats made against its employees who work conducting disconnections according to the power utility's processes. Qithi said threatening someone's life is a serious criminal offence which Eskom does not take lightly. She further said the mini substations which were switched off in Dobsonville were subsequently vandalised. "To repair the vandalised electricity infrastructure, a 60% threshold of affected customers need to pay a minimum deposit of R500 towards the total remedial fee of R6 052.00 for illegal connections, meter bypassing and tampering, as well as purchasing of electricity tokens from illegal vendors," she said. She said that the restoration of supply will not be immediate as the network has to be normalised and declared safe for the switch on. Eskom does not handle cash at any of its offices and none of its employees or contractors collect electricity payments from customers," she said. Quthi urged customers to report any employee or contractor asking for cash payments for reconnection to the Eskom Crime Line number 0800 11 27 22.