eMZINONI – Fed up residents recently took to the streets to protest against unbearable power cuts in the area.
The residents blocked some roads with rocks and burned tires in 2000 Section on Tuesday, 13 May.
Locals said they had no choice but to defy the lockdown regulations in order to make their voices heard.
Ms Ntombi Mabena, a resident, said: “We cannot take this anymore. The municipality is not taking us serious.
“This municipality has no respect for the citizens and the law.
“It is Gazetted that there will be no load shedding during the lockdown but they decided to implement it.
“Police must stop disturbing us when we protest, because they are also affecting by this.
“They must also join the fight against Govan Mbeki Municipality.”
Police managed to calm the situation and at the time of going to the press things were back to normal.
A 19-year-old man was arrested in connection with public violence and others were arrested for defying the lockdown regulations.
Bethal and eMbalenhle are also affected by these constant power cuts.
In some area the electricity is interrupted for more than five hours a day.
The municipality had since said the power cuts are caused by the Eskom’s transformers which are set to a maximum demand for the municipality, and if the maximum demand of power supply is exceeded, load shedding kicks in.
The municipality made a request to Eskom in April to develop a technical turnaround strategy on electricity supply for Bethal, eMzinoni and eMbalenhle, but Eskom said no.
The municipality asked Eskom to increase the NMD of Bethal with 54 per cent, eMzinoni with 12.5 per cent and eMbalenhle with 8.8 per cent.
However, Eskom said the guiding principles approved by the Eskom Exco on relief of NMD during the lockdown period, only apply to customers in good standing and paid up accounts prior to the lockdown period.
In their answer to Govan Mbeki Municipality, Eskom further said the municipality has been consistently failing to pay its monthly accounts prior to the lockdown period and that the municipality has been in breach of the Electricity Supply Agreement (ESA). The relief requested can thus not be directly linked to the lockdown period.
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The municipality also said the electricity theft and illegal connections are also a big problem which is causing power cuts to be worse.
The municipality embarked in the operation to disconnect illegal connections in the area.
It appealed to residents not to illegally connect to the electricity network.
“The illegal connections are the cause of the overloaded electricity supply grid which results in persistent power supply interruptions experienced in the area.
“If a household is found connected illegally, the municipality will issue a tamper notice, and remove the cables and meters, “stated municipality in a public notice.
The municipality published on their Facebook page on Thursday,14 May that a road is currently being constructed at the Bracken Mine substation for the abnormal cargo that will deliver the 20MVA transformer in the coming few weeks.
This is aimed at addressing the current electricity challenge in eMbalenhle.
Also read: Locals protest over power cuts in eMzinoni
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