MSUKALIGWA – Residents are faced with electricity woes that either become an inconvenience or cause damage to businesses or household appliances.
But do residents know their rights?
Highvelder has written several articles about Eskom’s load-shedding, municipal load reduction, and protests in which residents are disgruntled about basic service delivery.
The reason for load-shedding and load reduction being implemented is said to be done in an effort to deal with the high energy demands and to protect the stability of the electricity grid during times of severe pressure.
Questions surfaced from residents about this being legal and whether they are allowed to take legal action if they or their businesses suffer financial or other damages as a result of not having power.
Mr Louis Bates, a Breyten resident, said they experience outages that take place out of municipal load reduction times, and due to electricity problems, have suffered the loss and damage of appliances.
The South African Constitution, sections 152 and 153, stipulates that local government has the responsibility to ensure the provision of basic municipal services to communities in a sustainable manner.
The Constitution does not provide that electricity is a basic human right, however, the right to basic municipal services includes electricity.
Highvelder sent media enquiries to Mr Mandla Zwane, the spokesman for Msukaligwa Local Municipality (MLM).
Read Mr Zwane‘s response in the Highvelder newspaper.
