Oversight visits, but what about water and electricity?

Questions about water and electricity have been asked by the community after Mayor Mncedisi Maphisa conducted project oversight visits last week Wednesday in the areas of eMondlo, eMlangeni, eMadoshini, Sasko and eShoba.

The mayor led a delegation of Exco members and was accompanied by Deputy Mayor Mandla Mazibuko and Acting Municipal Manager Stefan Landman. The mayor and his delegation went to inspect MIG projects for the 2021/2022 financial year. ‘’We visited the first project in Bhekumthetho Ward 19, where a road is being constructed. The project is underway and it will be completed before the end of the financial year. We then went on to visit the eMhlangeni area under Ward 15 and 5, where a gravel road is being constructed and is 90% complete. We also went to Ward 13 in the Emodoshini area, where a community hall is being constructed but has experienced minor delays due to weather disruptions. Lastly, we visited Ward 8 in the Sasko area, where a tar road is being constructed. It is safe to say that our infrastructure projects are all on track and will be completed before the anticipated time.’’

However, people from different communities commented negatively after AbaQulusi Local Municipality posted about the oversight visits on social media. Residents asked when their communities will receive service delivery in terms of roads, bridges, community halls and water, since Vryheid has been experiencing water and electricity interruptions over the past weeks. People asked whether the town is experiencing load-shedding or whether the outages are related to municipal matters. The Vryheid Herald posed a question to the AbaQulusi mayor, saying that there have been oversight visits regarding infrastructure, but when will there be an oversight concerning the sources that supply water and electricity, that is constantly on and off, since that is the main issue at hand? The mayor commented that: ‘’A major problem or challenge regarding electricity is cable theft and the theft of electricity poles. There are people who steal cables and poles. On our assessment, those people are highly advanced in terms of the equipment they are using. That alone tells us that they are working for someone with the intention of disturbing municipal operations and that they have a market where they sell these cables.’’

‘’Automatically, when we experience electricity interruptions, the water supply is also affected because we use electricity to pump water. We have allocated money from the budget of the new financial year to upgrade security at all our substations and some for the maintenance of water and electricity infrastructure due to ageing. The security we have appointed have added their staff to the sites as well.’’ ALSO READ:Community ask the Mayor about water and electricity

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