SEC a disappointment!

Sir,

I would like to express my disappointment in the Swaziland Electricity Company. They are currently faced with many challenges in as far as rolling out the prepaid metering system is concerned. I’m especially worried about the availability of electricity during this busy year 2010.

We know that our neighbours South Africa are hosting the World Cup and they too have been faced with challenges about the availability of electricity since the country will be having the biggest number of visitors ever.
This leads me to my biggest question here. “What is SEC doing to make sure there won’t be any problems as far as electricity availability is concerned for our own Swazi nation?”

We import most of the electricity we use from Eskom, the very people who are worried about the shortage of electricity. If so it happens that they encounter problems, won’t we be affected? Does SEC have a back up plan?
I understand that Eskom is currently implementing energy efficiency programs that include a mass campaign in promoting the use of solar water heating in households as most of household electricity goes towards water heating.

But I hear nothing similar being done for our country. Some communities are already experiencing shortages in electricity supply. These people have paid their money to have electricity connected in their houses and have used their hard earned cash to buy appliances that will help improve their lives, such as refrigerators. Some use these appliances to do work that generate income for their families. This means then some families lose the income they should be earning as well the food they had stored in the freezers as it gets spoilt.

This may look like a minor problem but some of us see a company which failing in service delivery. At the end of the day they expect the consumer to pay for a service that is not really helping. SEC needs to take action and start considering issues of increasing public awareness on energy efficiency. As is, some of us think the company’s priority is to collect revenue from people.

Think of all the costs that one goes through before electricity can be connected into one’s house. A poor family cannot afford the thousands that are required to be able to connect electricity. Even after you have connected there are the huge bills to pay, bills that would have been avoided had the public been made aware on how to use their electricity efficiently. There remains a lot of work to be done to educate Swaziland. So many Swazis still believe that stoves, heaters and ovens use the same energy as lights.

It is SEC responsibility to make the Swazi citizen its priority not money. This should happen before we are left in the dark wondering what happened to the lights that we paid for with our hard earned cash. The company should take a lead in starting these energy efficient programmes. We are also aware that electricity is a service provided for free for the company’s employees.

As an individual I’m left to wonder exactly who pays for that electricity. Kute kwamahhala phela lamhlabeni.
Something needs to be done to put our minds at rest. SEC should continue with the roll out of nationwide efficient lighting campaigns and they should introduce efficient water heating in their buildings too. But they should make sure that the monthly bill reflects the changes people have made. I have followed the advice to switch to energy efficient light bulbs and adopted energy saving measures at home but my efforts are not reflected in that bill that I get at the end of the month.

Please stop letting down my efforts to be energy efficient because this is also robbing me off my money as well.
I appeal to our only utility company to do something. They should consider the citizen first. We don’t want to be left in the dark. We all want to watch the world cup even in our rural communities.

Disappointed
Mbabane

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