Electricity supply take-over in Madadeni and oSizweni
Newcastle municipality to take over electricity supply to townships.
The Newcastle Municipality is now looking at taking over electricity supply to areas like Madadeni and oSizweni.
Speaking at a press briefing on Monday, Mayor of Newcastle, Afzul Rehman, said that he was aware of the fact that Eskom was suffering huge losses in the area due to theft.
“There is some serious discussion around taking over the electricity supply, or parts thereof, to Madadeni and oSizweni,” said Cllr Rehman. “Because of the fact that we do not supply electricity there, we therefore have no control over what is going on in the townships.”
Due to the inability of Eskom to properly control electricity usage in these areas, opportunists are running amok. The dangers of illegal electricity connections are a well-known hazard in township areas.
“There are many other issues surrounding electricity, so we will have to be very careful about how we do it,” said Cllr Rehman.
He also referred to streetlights that are not in working condition and that they are a huge contributing factor towards high crime rate in the area.
The municipality plans to take over supply and management of the streetlights first, as a test run.
“We will first take over the issue of streetlights, then we will manage, maintain and control them. Then we will move forward with discussions to take over more of the electricity supply,” he concluded.
