BETHAL – While most of Bethal and eMzinoni’s lights have been staying on, this does not mean that all have been seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of their electricity woes.
For one area in Bethal the power had been off for several hours last week.
“Our power went off at 5am and only came back on after 6pm,” said a resident.
The resident claims that it was a switch at a substation that was not switched on.
“It took them more than 12 hours to put on a switch. This is total incompetency,” said the angry resident.
Bethal and eMzinoni have been one of the main targeted areas when it comes to load reduction on electricity use.
At the beginning of February, Govan Mbeki Municipality posted their load shedding schedules for both towns on their social media platform.
They had stated that at that stage the load reduction schedule would not be implemented every day, however, this could change when the demand became too high.
They had requested residents assistance to prevent overloading by reducing the prolonged use of high electricity consuming appliances.
The battle is still ongoing between the Bethal and eMzinoni Community for Services (Becs) and GMM, Gert Sibande District Municipality GSDM), Eskom Holdings in Johannesburg and the Mpumalanga MEC for Corporative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
GSDM said in a media release last week that in August of last year, GSDM and GMM concluded the signing of a Service Level Agreement confirming the appointment of GSDM as the implementing agent.
According to the media release significant progress had been made and GSDM was able to hold public consultations with the communities of Bethal and eMzinoni.
This according to GSDM was to inform the public of the agreement between the two municipalities, the work to be expected from GSDM as the implementing agent and also the work to be expected from the service provider which would be appointed in the months to come.
A Service Level Agreement was signed between GSDM and Enpower Machite JV on 9 February.
Enpower Machite JV has been appointed for five years, to provide a service with the capacity and expertise under the supervision of GSDM, such as collecting revenue, paying the monthly account to Eskom on behalf of the GMM, improving the state of the infrastructure by providing more reliable electricity supply to customers, improving the revenue collection and improving customer service.
The signing of this agreement was made by the GSDM manager, Mr Absenia Habile, and Enpower Machite JV’s executive director, Ms Rhulani Matshidze.
The Ridge Times spoke to Mr Ziyaad Dangor, media spokesperson for Becs, regarding the media release and if they were aware of any meetings held with the public. Mr Dangor responded by asking who is responsible for the supply of electricity to Bethal?
“GSDM filed an application at the High Court that they should not be taken to court by the residence of eMzinoni and Bethal as they are not responsible for the supply of electricity in Bethal, yet they have now appointed an independent contractor to oversee Bethal’s electricity,” said Mr Dangor.
He said that they are led to believe that the independent contractor would be responsible for the next five years under the ‘umbrella’ of GSDM.
“Why then did GSDM make an application to the High Court claiming that they are not responsible for Bethal?”
Mr Dangor said they were not notified of the public hearings which were supposedly held regarding appointing the said contractor.
“It is common knowledge that Becs has been representing the community regarding the electricity crisis. We were not involved or contacted by GMM or GSDM as claimed by them. When and where were these public consultations held?” asked Mr Dangor.
He went said the case against GMM, GSDM and other parties is still ongoing.
“Our attorneys are now in the process of seeking a court date for the hearing to continue.
“Becs will not stop at this stage and is going full steam ahead with the court case to ensure service delivery is rendered.”
Mr Dangor again reminded the public that this process is a lengthy one but the only legal avenue available to the residence to fight for justice.
