Residents demand electricity

Kwatsaduza – Tsakani and Duduza residents say they have been without power for almost three weeks now.

This follows almost daily protests which started last week, with residents blocking roads and burning tyres.

Duduza resident Nono Magabe says: “People are protesting for electricity.

“It has been weeks now without electricity. In Duduza, the only section which seems not to be affected much is Blugum View.

“As for the rest of the township, people are struggling due to power blackouts.

“Some transformers were burning on Sunday night.

“At this point people are frustrated and it doesn’t look like we are going to be helped anytime soon.”

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In Tsakani, Maskopasini residents also took to the streets for demonstration due to electricity-related issues.

Resident Bafana Chilube says: “The problem is that the electricity trips, especially at night, leaving many households without power.

“Eskom had previously promised to come and do an inspection of illegal connections since they say the power trips due to illegal connections, but they never did.

“When they first came they took our meter numbers, but to date there hasn’t been any progress.”

Residents are saying Eskom, with the help of the police, should conduct a door-to-door inspection to disconnect illegal connections since when one section gets power another section’s power goes off.

Ward 85 Clr Moses Sipho Sibiya says Eskom needs to strengthen their stakeholders’ engagement so that councillors can be updated on the challenges relating to electricity.

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“Most of the infrastructure is aging; therefore, Eskom should have a maintenance plan to avoid outages.

“We need to also discourage the buying of Ghost CDU, illegal connections and meter tampering.

“We also discourage protesting as a way of venting out frustrations, especially when the Covid-19 is at its peak, as this may lead to the increase in the number of infections.”

Eskom had not replied by the time of print.

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