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Mataffin community protest over Eskom services

A protest was held on Monday afternoon at around 15:00 due to an ongoing dispute between the Mataffin community and Eskom.

MBOMBELA – This dispute also resulted in the blockading of the N4 between Cairn and Halls on Saturday evening.

According to Brig Leonard Hlathi, the electricity in Mataffin was off for most of Saturday. It was speculated that it was switched off because of illegal connections. Lazarus Muthimba, a spokesman at Eskom, has since confirmed that the power was off, although not because Eskom switched it off.

“The power supply to Mataffin tripped, resulting in an unplanned power outage. Upon investigation by Eskom, it was discovered that the root cause was illegal connections. The illegal connections have to be removed before supply can be restored,” Eskom mentioned in a press release yesterday.

“On Saturday January 11, some members of the Mataffin community decided to conduct the illegal act of occupying certain Eskom premises and blocking off roads in protest to force Eskom to restore electricity supply in their area. These protest actions are unlawful.”

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The community of Mataffin started protesting around 17:00. The SAPS and an Eskom official were on the scene to speak to the community.

The protest dissipated, although the community blocked the N4 at around 23:50 and started throwing rocks at passing vehicles.

According to Solange Soares, the protesters damaged TRAC property by using signage to block the road. The SAPS returned to the scene, although no one was arrested.

According to the press release, Eskom met with the Mataffin community members on Monday morning, January 13 and resolved to remove the illegal connections in the area.

“The illegal connections were isolated and removed from the MV network. The supply to the community of Mataffin was restored at around 14:00. Eskom will continue to remove the illegal connections in the area.”

Watch the video of the protest on Monday afternoon:

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