GA-MAKOFANE – “The days of darkness are over for our communities and a new day has begun,” said Cllr Nkosi Josias Mahlake, mayor of the Greater Tubatse Municipality at the launch of operation Mabone.
The objective of this R231 million project is to provide electricity to 21 villages. Mahlake said in his speech last Friday it had never happened anywhere before and the municipality was proud to be the first to take on such a huge enterprise.
“Today we are officially handing over the project to the beneficiaries because all the plans have been approved by Eskom and the contractors are ready to begin with their work,” he said.
Apparently this process is not for the faint-hearted and it took the municipality three years to get approval and funding. “We approached Mr Lufuno Mphaphuli of Mphaphuli Consulting to assist us in our quest to secure funding.
We then approached National Treasury, Department of Energy and Eskom to assist with funding. Presentations were made to the portfolio committee in parliament and to the two Ministers.
In 2013 we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Eskom and the Department of Energy to address the backlog and a letter of commitment was issued by National Treasury to commit the funds to the project,” explained Mahlake.
He also thanked the Minister of Energy Mr Ben Martins.
In 2012 the total backlog of houses in need of electricity was standing at 20 000. Statistics have shown that Greater Tubatse has the biggest backlog in electricity in the province.
“We still have a challenge of other sections which were excluded from this phase but once the project is on, we will engage with Eskom and the department on how to cover them,” Mahlake assured the community.
He also urged all the affected communities through their ward councillors to begin the process of establishing project steering committees for the projects and to appoint community liaison officers. “This must be done as a matter of urgency as the contractors have been appointed and they cannot wait to start with their work,” he said.
Mahlake concluded his speech by urging the crowd to vote. “We are here to make dreams possible for our people who have been without electricity for many years,” he said.
