HIGHVELD – Ms Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, premier of Mpumalanga, called on Govan Mbeki Municipality to ensure consistent provision of water and electricity to the community.
In an exclusive interview with Ridge Times, Ms Mtsweni-Tsipane, said it is totally unacceptable that locals are experiencing power outages and water shortages.
“We encourage our municipalities to attend to these problems, because water is a basic need.
“The Govan Mbeki Municipality has a command centre chaired by the executive mayor, and those concerns should be attended to swiftly.
“Water supply is not negotiable. At the stage in which we find ourselves, we must make sure that there is consistent supply of water.
“With this Covid-19 pandemic, we do not expect any interruptions; hence we will be giving Jojo tanks of water to all the regions of the province.”
She said the government partnered with Sasol to address some of the water problems in the province.
Ms Mtsweni-Tsipane mentioned that she is also attending to water challenges in Lekwa Municipality.
Watch the video here:
She said a team of technical experts is deployed to Lekwa Municipality to investigate and implement some changes at the Water Treatment Plant in order to supply Lekwa residents with clean water.
She said Lekwa employees will receive water purification training led by Sasol and that Rand Water will also assist with their technical aspects.
The newspaper had an interview with Ms Mtsweni-Tsipane after locals expressed their frustrations over the significant rise of electricity and water cuts in eMzinoni, eMbalenhle and Bethal.
Since the lockdown began most of these areas have been experiencing daily power outages of up to six hours.
In eMzinoni this week, residents were at the verge protesting and were mobilising themselves to riot about power cuts in the area after they were without electricity for nearly a week.
However, police responded swiftly and manage to control the situation.
Police then contacted the Govan Mbeki Municipality, who in turn, blamed a faulty cable for the power outage.
Municipal workers fixed the cable and electricity was restored the next day.
Daily power outages do however; continue in the area and in Bethal town.
eMbalenhle residents also complained about power outages in their area.
The executive mayor, Ms Thandi Ngxonono, said Eskom was limiting the municipality’s notified maximum demand for electricity on all points of supply as per the electricity supply agreement between the municipality and Eskom.
“This decision means that the municipality will continue to implement partial rotational load shedding in Bethal, eMzinoni, Kinross and Evander where necessary, depending on the load demand.
“Govan Mbeki Municipality has in the meantime applied at Eskom to upgrade the notified maximum demand for the respective towns.
“We apologise to our people for any inconvenience cause by this, we are work hard to find lasting solutions.”
Also read: It’s a dark lockdown for Bethal resident
- Notice: Coronavirus reporting at Caxton Local Media aims to combat fake news
Dear reader,
“As your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments. As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online. Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed. Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol. A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19,” said Ms Helene Eloff, Legal Adviser for Caxton.
Readers with any comments or queries may contact National Group Editor Irma Green (irma@caxton.co.za) or Legal Adviser Helene Eloff (helene@caxton.co.za).
