#Letter: Loadshedding burden must be shared

Ballito resident Walter Schotter writes:

I am now putting it out there for a formal response from the KwaDukuza municipality (KDM) as to why the burden of loadshedding is not equitably shared in our area.

The excuse that the Avon Peaking Substation cannot be turned off is nonsense.

That is a private plant, and if it was that critical, why was it not built with this in mind, such as backup power sources for alternative feeds?

This substation is on the Glendale feeder out of Shakaskraal, so if it truly has to stay on, fair enough, just never turn off the Glendale feeder.

I feel so sorry for those people though when there are general breakdowns on that feeder and trust me, of late there have been quite a few outages affecting that area.

But all other feeders can be turned off to lighten the load on Ballito which is bearing the full brunt of the loadshedding, as well as Zimbali (I am not familiar with the feeders for the northern region, so not sure how equitable the shedding is for Stanger).

So can we have the truth please, which in my opinion is quite simple. KDM is not interested in doing the switching that is needed to loadshed, so it’s just easier to let Eskom do it, which means the same area over and over again carrying the entire load.

If that is to continue, then anyone who is not reducing their load in the unaffected areas should be charged double the going rate until there is no more loadshedding.

If KDM wants to be the electrical service provider then they must administer and operate it and not tell us Eskom does the switching. That is not good enough, let us then fall directly under Eskom and pay them.

We can then close the electrical division if they are not able to deliver the service.

KwaDukuza municipality media liaison officer Sipho Mkhize responds:

The municipality is trying its best to establish more substations so it can provide reliable supply to all communities and ensure that, moving forward, whatever is done to the left-hand side, is done on the right-hand side as well.

One thing the municipality can guarantee is that in as much as you have communities that indirectly benefit, there is no political decision or partiality, it just so happens that some areas are located in the locality of lines that cannot be switched off.

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