OTT revived
Civic organisation reflects on past challenges and vows to continue fighting against prepaid.
“2017 is the year of change in Orlando East.” This is how Seth Mazibuko, leader of the Orlando Task Team (OTT) closed their Annual General Meeting (AGM) this past weekend.
The weekend long AGM was held at one of the student residents of the University of Johannesburg Soweto Campus.
It served as a revival platform for the civic organisation which has been at the forefront of the fight against the installation of prepaid electricity in Orlando East.
The OTT ended last year on a low with tensions within the organisation in the build-up to the elections.
“One of the mandates that we got from the community when we were reviewing the elections last year was to look at where the gaps were.
“The problem was that there were tensions within the OTT itself when people left for their political parties in the build-up to the elections,” said Mazibuko.
The AGM discussed all challenges faced by the organisation and came up with solutions moving forward.
Mazibuko said the OTT is moving on with or without those who left for their political parties last year.
To show the seriousness of their moving on, the organisation has adopted a constitution which will now be presented to all members and the community.
New members were welcomed in the organisation and a new leadership committee elected during the AGM as well.
Despite losing a few prominent members, the OTT is still passionate about fighting against the introduction of prepaid in Orlando East.
Last year the organisation led a series of protests against the introduction of prepaid in the area. At the AGM it was agreed that this year there should be more engagements with Eskom, councillors and all stakeholders.
“We will not be sacrificing our right to protest but we will be having more engagements this year. We will only use our right to protest when all has failed with engagements,” said Mazibuko.
He went on to distance his organisation from the community meeting with MMC for Infrastructure Anthony Still held at the communal hall late last year.
He said they can’t trust Still to be anti prepaid since he comes from a prepaid culture when he was at the helm of Joburg Water.
These accusations were also uttered by a guest speaker Trevor Ngwane, during the opening of the AGM.
“It was Anthony Still, who as CEO of Joburg Water came with the idea of prepaid water metres for Soweto.
“He contracted a French multinational company Suez to carry out his dirty job of robbing people of water in the ‘new South Africa’ which many got for free under apartheid,” said Ngwane.
The OTT is open to the idea of taking the prepaid matter to court but in the meantime, it is all about engagements this year.
They have started engaging even with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to look in to the possibility of moving Orlando East from Eskom to City Power and also introducing a third option which is flat rate at different levels.
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