ERPA’s Kobus works with a mission to serve
Kobus Janse van Rensburg’s ‘Damascus’ moment was on 27 March 2018, when he walked from his front door to the sidewalk of his house in SE3, Vanderbijlpark, and saw a shocking sight of four weeks’ refuse that had failed to be collected by the Emfuleni’s Municipal Refuse Service.
“That was the moment when I knew something had to be done,” says the 52-year electrical contractor.
At first, he engaged with municipal officials. It was a nightmare. “The lack of knowledge and will to assist was evident,” he explains. On social media, he found like-minded Emfuleni residents who had also been angered by ELM’s lack of service delivery.
“Since then I’ve learnt to be patient,” he says. “I am not aggressive. I will rather talk and try to convince people. It works for me.”
Kobus’s proactive response to this crisis took an interesting turn of events. His brother, Gerhard, a retired IBM IT expert, assisted him in creating a social media platform and comprehensive website. It stores a mass of information.
ELM’s irate residents have access to formatted legal municipal documents, including all forms they may require. They simply need to log on to https://erpa.co.za, and fill in their details on a digital form. Membership is free.
Complaints range from water, sanitation, refuse removal, and most importantly electricity problems. Messages are sent to the ELM. Kobus’s first project on refuse removal started in SE3 and soon branched out. With the support of a local councillor, the comprehensive project was rolled out to all Emfuleni ratepayers. The first level of a communication platform used WhatsApp. Once Emfuleni Ratepayer’s Association (ERPA) came online in 2018, the system switched to Telegram. This free mobile app takes 200 000 members per theme. ERPA then posted, and filed all correspondence and documents on additional platforms, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the ERPA website. Everything is accessible for members (2168 registered on ERPA’s website on 14 February 2020).
The idea to start a ratepayer’s association was born after numerous public meetings with concerned Emfuleni residents held at Stonehaven.
“Today we have buy-in and support from SAVE, Proudly 3 Rivers, GTCoC and SWAG,” Kobus states, giving credit to Mari Myburgh who, ten years ago, had started up ERPA’s precursor, Emfuleni Ratepayers Union for Vaal Barrage waterfront residents.
ERPA’s management quickly complied with legal requirements and registered Emfuleni Ratepayers Association as a non-profit company (NPC).
Chris and Liezl Viljoen, a husband-and wife team of health and safety experts, joined the management group, along with a local accounting consultancy, headed by Stefan Olivier.
Anke van der Schyff joined the team as Expert in Community Security. Then came Michael Brucher, an Engineer and Activist.
He is ERPA’s strategic Asset Liaison Officer. Since then, ERPA has actively engaged with the ELM’s municipal management and mayors, starting in 2018 with Cllr. Jacob Khawe and currently with Mayor, Rev. Gift Morane.
The new Municipal Manager, Lucky Leseane (January 2020), has joined ERPA on Facebook. “I hope he will see and understand the ratepayer’s desperation,” says Kobus. “Leseane’s predecessor was quick to quit ERPA’s “Electrical Stream” once the smart-meter crisis started in 2018.” At the time, the company BCX had cancelled its contract with ELM for servicing smart meter data, because of non-payment. Then municipal officials set out to by-pass all Emfuleni’s domestic smart meters. Four days after the crisis started, ERPA had commenced with almost 2 000 bypasses, free of charge for powerstricken ratepayers. ERPA noticed ELM had used incorrect low-capacity (1.5mm) GP wire to bypass power. Several suburban power distribution systems were vulnerable to burnout.
“ELM’s officials clearly compromised safety standards, using incorrect wiring.
They even, according to our evidence, vandalised ELM infrastructure,” says Kobus. “ELM was supposed to use at least 10mm diameter GP wire on the 80A circuit, feeding into each house. We then reported the fault to the electrical stream.”
At first, ERPA had eight MIE-certified electricians who volunteered their services free of charge. “Soon we were 14 – even experts of Arcelor Mittal and Sasol reported for duty, with consent of their employers.”
“Up to now, we have not had a single ‘thank you’ or positive response from ELM,” says Kobus. “I am not one for arguments and sulking. ERPA wants to help ratepayers. We will do so until our members revoke our mandate.”
He explains: “Our legal team has thousands of formal complaints (compliants with the law). ELM has failed to respond to any, within the prescribed 14 days.
“Many residents have sought ERPA’s support in dealing with ELM officials – several from Sharpeville and Sebokeng and many from Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark. Some are even municipal officials.”
To prove his point, he shows important visual evidence on his phone. This proactive man may talk softly, but he has a great deal of important legal data and has shown his devotion to the community at large.
