Eskom for electricity, Johannesburg Water for taps, Pikitup for rubbish, Joburg Connect for the rest — every problem routed to the entity that actually fixes it, with the numbers that work.
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Soweto sits inside the City of Johannesburg (Region D), but the services are split across different entities — and electricity is the odd one out: most of Soweto buys power straight from Eskom, not the city's City Power. This page routes each problem to the entity that actually fixes it, with the channels they run themselves.
Buying prepaid electricity safely
Eskom contact centre
Faults, outages, meter and token problems, account queries
Alfred — Eskom's chatbot
Report a power loss and get a reference number in seconds; also takes meter readings. Save 08600 37566 in your phone and message it on WhatsApp, or use the web version.
Johannesburg Water call centre
Bursts, leaks, dry taps, sewer blockages
Daily water notices
Where Johannesburg Water posts planned work, outages and tanker deployments each day — also on Facebook and X (@JHBWater)
Pikitup call centre
Missed collections and waste complaints (or Joburg Connect, option 4)
Report illegal dumping
Pikitup's dumping lines
Joburg Connect
The city's all-services line, 24 hours: option 1 billing, 2 City Power, 3 Joburg Water, 4 Pikitup, 5 roads, 6 Metrobus
Jabulani Civic Centre
Region D customer service centre — account payments and queries, meter investigations, new connections
Joburg emergency services (ambulance, fire, JMPD)
Life-threatening emergencies only — including flooding
Police (SAPS)
Ambulance (national)
Eskom by USSD (no data needed)
Dial *120*37566# from any phone: log faults, check fault status, log token issues, check balances, submit meter readings
Town Tools builds free, public tools for Soweto and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.
Eskom Crime Line
Report meter tampering, illegal connections and electricity-sales scams — anonymous, toll-free
Garden sites (free green-waste drop-off)
Mapetla (Khama Road) · Protea North (Makhaya Avenue) · Orlando · Klipspruit West Ext 2 (Main Street) — see the full facility list
Dobsonville Customer Service Centre
Region D customer service centre
Zola Customer Service Centre
Region D customer service centre
Your ward councillor
Look up who represents your ward with your ID number, on the IEC's official lookup
Emergency from any cellphone