POWER-LESS IN HAENERTSBURG

This is the concern of a group of desperate locals in the Magoebaskloof town who spoke to the Herald on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution if they come forward. One business owner in the lumber industry told the Herald that if the situation does not improve, he will be forced to close shop at the end of the year. “From 1 to 18 January we had only four days of uninterrupted power, I just cannot carry on like this. Fourteen people will lose their jobs,” he said.

He said that on average he loses three to four working days per month. “If you include load shedding, it goes up to four to five days.” During the festive season, one of the busiest times of the year, the tourist town was faced with uncountable hours of outages. “We are desperate for the Greater Tzaneen Municipality (GTM) to intervene and start to adhere to our pleas,” one restaurant owner, who also employs fourteen people, told the Herald.

He said that he had to invest in a second generator to keep his doors open. “But it is very expensive, it costs me R1000 per day only in petrol to start the generator.” He said that the problem seems to increase over weekends when they are at their busiest. “Magoebaskloof is a popular wedding destination and the seven restaurants in town depend on the support from these visitors.
But we need electricity to expand and create more jobs.” An administrator on one of the town’s electricity WhatsApp groups told the Herald that a member of the group recorded the hours without power.

“In July the person was five hours without electricity, in November it was 132 hours and in December, 124 hours.”He said that a recent survey among members of the group showed that in the
last four months, R1,4 million were lost due to loss in production or loss in goods or customers. Seventy people participated in the survey. An owner of a self-catering bed and breakfast establishment, Moya Blight also had to deal with cancellations and had to refund bookings due to a constant lack of electricity.

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“It is an absolute disgrace. The entire district has been placed into an ongoing dire situation and we are losing customer confidence in the area daily.” She said she wants to expand but that the
inefficient power supply and the resultant loss of income make it very difficult. “Instead of us expanding, it is causing retrenchments, job losses, and a lack of infrastructure investment.” (Read her letter on page 2.) A gin producer who lives outside of town said that her business suffers every time the power goes off. “We are unable to bottle and start to fall behind on orders,” she said.

A member of the town’s neighbour watch puts the blame on GTM. “Part of the area we work in is serviced by Eskom from Polokwane. Their outages are minimal,” he said. The biggest frustration is the lack of communication from GTM. “You just don’t know what the problem is or how long the outage is anticipated so that you can plan for it.” It is said that communication did improve after a visit from the new mayor, Gerson Molapisane, in December. “It all depends on how efficient the person in the control room is. There are controllers who really go out of their way to report back when a fault is reported.”

A fourth-generation Magoebaskloof resident said that there is no quick solution to the problems they are experiencing. “Decades of lack of maintenance has led to the infrastructure being in tatters,” he said. Falling trees and vegetation on power lines are the biggest cause of power outages. He said that although it has always been a problem, the problem has spun out of control in the last few years. He said GTM used to have a full-time team to clear the vegetation along the power lines. “This has however has been halted and is subcontracted. No preventive measures
are taken,” he said.

• An enquiry was sent to the spokesperson of GTM. At the time of going to print, no response was received.