Road repairs leave many residents fuming

LYDENBURG – Residents of the town, Mashishing and Kellysville are not at all impressed with Thaba Chweu Local Municipality’s (TCLM) endeavour to repair roads instead of paying the outstanding electrical debt to Eskom.

Disgruntled residents responded furiously to a post on TCLM’s Facebook page from November 5, stating, “We continue to refurbish our infrastructure for the benefit of our communities. The Kellysville intersection that troubled us for a long time, we managed to get it correct this time – ‘Re Direla Batho’.”

Residents commented that it is inappropriate for the municipality to use alleged available funds to fix these roads instead of paying Eskom.

Kellysville residents said Thaba Chweu should leave the roads, which are not important at this stage, and pay the power utility.

Steelburger/Lydenburg News contacted the municipality regarding the post.

According to TCLM communication manager, Puleng Mapheto, the Eskom account is a priority. However, the municipality still has to operate with other mandated responsibilities.

“The municipality has internal programmes, such as road maintenance and other related infrastructures. It is continuous refurbishment of aging infrastructure that

is part of the Integrated Development

Plan within the jurisdiction of TCLM,” Mapheto said.

Last week the Constitutional Court accepted the three business chambers’ (Lydenburg/Mashishing, Sabie and Graskop) application to stop the ongoing electricity disconnections. The matter will now go to court again.

This follows after the recent setback when an interdict was obtained to prevent further power cuts, but the judge in Mbombela High Court determined that the chambers’ application was “not urgent”.

The chambers vowed that no stone will be left unturned to ensure the problem is addressed.

The application was successfully filed on Monday November 6.