Whether residents have a right to receive water and electricity, has been argued in the Constitutional Court in 2009 and the court held that municipalities have an obligation in this regard, citing it a public duty.
Lekwa Municipality failed dismally the past week.
A water leak that had to be repaired in Ward 10, impacted on water supply in streets such as Burger, Charl Cilliers, Kieser, Mbonani Mayisela, Caledon, Leyds, Beyers Naudé, Krogh, Paarl and Walter Sisulu Drive, with Schwickard and Coligny Streets queuing up for attention.
Meyerville has intermittent water supply as well and Sakhile is not better off with regards to Ext 7, Ext 8 and Rooikoppen.
Electricity interruptions occurred on Monday, 19 April and once the news broke about a cat’s presence in a high voltage area and its subsequent death, the whole town was off.
A fire spark set the wheels in motion.
According to information, a 132KV breaker on the Eskom-side tripped and technicians from Ermelo were needed.
The carbon on the high voltage area had to be cleaned and towards the evening, the wait began for technicians from eMalahleni (Witbank).
To add insult to injury, a notification was received that Eskom would be working on customer isolators on Friday, 23 April from 8.30am to 4pm.
The information contained a sentence that it could take two days for the needed work.
Rain however, began falling on Friday at about 6am.
Eskom continued maintenance on transformer 12 on Friday and the NMD was increased on transformer 11 to accommodate the town’s capacity.
The caucus leader of the DA, Mr Rosier de Ville, issued a press release on Tuesday, 20 April, stating that residents not only deserve better, but have a right to acceptable standards of service delivery.
Mr De Ville said Standerton has degenerated to one of the worst run, debt-ridden towns in South Africa.
He voiced his frustration about a scheduled meeting on 20 April whereby Lekwa would have been placed under administration, but was cancelled on very short notice.
“Neither the mayor, municipal manager, speaker nor the whip could be found in the main building,” he also said.
Residents breathed a sigh of relief as power was kept on in most areas and water supply was still not consistent over the weekend.
