Deputy Minister of Energy urges Vryheid to tackle ‘economic sabotage’

DEPUTY Minister of Energy, Thembisile Majola was in Vryheid last Friday for a meeting at AbaQulusi Municipality.
The meeting revealed some shocking revelations prior to their departure to KwaVilakazi in Ward 6, approximately 26km outside of Vryheid for an inspection of the electrification project in the area.

AbaQulusi Mayor, Cllr Jerry Sibiya, who has been waging war on illegal electrical connections in recent times, stood firm in his resolve against the scourge that is summarily robbing the municipality of millions of rands.

“We are not the guilty party here,” stated Mayor Sibiya. “Some of our consumers are the guilty parties in this regard and they must be dealt with,” he added firmly. “We must deal with them accordingly…”

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Deputy Minister Majola described the R1Billion budget cut, due to the ‘fee free education’ fiasco, as a “serious haircut” and added that the Department would be prioritising municipalities who “actually do the work” and commended AbaQulusi Municipality on the progress that has been made since 2015.

Ms Majola also referred to the maintenance of infrastructure within municipalities, pointing out that this was a national challenge and that municipalities should be allocating at least ten percent of their grants to this purpose.

Touching on the concerning matter of cable theft and illegal connections, she stated firmly that these crimes should no longer be considered ‘petty crime’ but should fall under the crime of “economical sabotage” instead.

“These crimes should carry a 15 to thirty year sentence including a fine,” she stated. “Children are dying. Just recently another child was killed when they stepped on a live cable. And illegal connections are threatening to overload the system. When this happens, the transformer blows up, meaning more unnecessary expense…”

“We have found certain meters have been bridged,” added Mayor Sibiya, with some concern. “This was not done by any ordinary person,” he adds, “this was done by a technician…”

Deputy Mayor, Cllr Mncedisi Maphisa, closed the meeting with prayer and explained what the next step in the agenda would entail, including the visit to KwaVilakazi in Ward 6 where AbaQulusi Municipality is in the process of establishing an electrification project.

“We managed to visit six houses,” stated Cllr Maphisa, who described the residents as welcoming and happy about the project. Cllr Maphisa noted several other problems faced by the residents they visited on Friday.

“We spoke to a Mr Xulu who resides alone in the area. It appears that his site was taken by his relatives who built a beautiful house on it and he stays in a shack behind it. We also visited the Ndwandwe family who, along with being mentally challenged, depend solely on their mother’s grant and piece jobs as three of the family members don’t even have ID documents. The Mkhwanazi family was next and we met a young man who is a qualified chemical engineer, but remains unemployed. He can’t even get an internship…” stated Cllr Maphisa sadly.