A KLOOF family was forced to wait five months, cough up thousands of Rands and make multiple, long visits to the municipality to have electricity cables installed at their new home.
Nomchy Makhanya, who lives in Kloof with her husband and three children, has been living without electricity since she and her family moved into their house at the beginning of March.
The family has been forced to use a generator due to the lack of electricity in their home.
Makhanya has been left frustrated about the municipality’s inability to communicate with her regarding the installation of electricity in her newly-built home.
“We paid R15 000 for electricity to be installed in our home in March,” said Makhanya.
“We also applied for water and made all of our payments in April.”
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Thulani Makhanya, Nomchy’s husband has been going to the municipal office since March to explain the electricity problems he and his family were facing, according to his wife, Nomchy.
They have sent plenty of emails and letters, but did not receive assistance.
Makhanya was told by the municipality that in order for his family to get their electricity up-and-running, they would need to buy a 40 metre cable, which set them back R700 per metre.
Thulani also had to deal with being sent back-and-forth by the municipality, where at times he would spend four hours waiting to be helped or, he’d be stopped and questioned by security.
“We just want the municipality to meet us halfway,” said Makhanya.
“We’ve spent a lot of money throughout this process including the petrol costs and other expenses.”
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The Makhanya family moved into their newly constructed home in March and found there to be no electricty connection.
“The neighbours have been complaining about the noise of the generator and it’s also tough hosting guests, preparing meals and so on in our new home without having any electricity.”
After a long wait and lots of money and time spent at the municipality, the Makhanya family received a glimmer of hope when they noticed municipal workers preparing to install, what looked like electrical cables on Tuesday evening, 13 August.
The Makhanya’s finally had their electricity switched on later that week on Friday.
The municipality’s communications office did not respond to the Highway Mail’s requests for comment at the time of going to press.
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