eMBALENHLE – The Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) told the office of the Public Protector that the electricity interruptions in the area are caused by the national loadshedding schedule implemented by Eskom as well as faults on the infrastructure.
At first she told the community that the power interruptions were due to the lack of capacity, because of the high demand in the area, but this later changed to power cuts being caused by electricity theft and illegal vendors in the area.
eMbalenhle has been experiencing electricity problems for nearly a decade without any solutions from Council.
This has resulted in several riots in the area where municipal infrastructure and vehicles and the Mall@eMba were torched.
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Concerned residents wrote to the office of the Public Protector in November requesting that GMM should be investigated for their failure to supply the needed electricity.
The office recently responded to the complaints and said that in the preliminary investigation the municipality acknowledged they have received the complaints and that the Eskom account is in arrears.
The municipality, however, refuted that the electricity supply interruptions are caused by their inability to pay the Eskom account.
According to the response from the office of the Public Protector to the complainants, the municipality stated that they are in a process of refurbishing their infrastructure to ensure that the supply of electricity is not interrupted and they have not received any complaints from the community since they have embarked on the project.
The municipality further told the office of the Public Protector that the project will cover the eMbalenhle area and that it will be extended to other regions of the municipality in due course.
The disgruntled residents are intending to respond to the office of the Public Protector that the municipality is not truthful about of the reasons of the power interruptions.
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