After paying an amount of R10 000 last year November, Mthabela family from Section B in eMondlo still sits in the dark waiting for AbaQulusi Municipality to connect electricity to their home.

Home owner, Khethani Mthabela said, “this is very stressful because we paid a lot of money yet they keep telling us there are no cables”.

His daughter, Bonisiwe reiterated her father’s words and said that this was also costly in the pocket.

“We paid a lot of money but we still do not have electricity. We now have to rely on using paraffin and we spend a lot of money to buy food enough for one day because we cannot buy a lot of groceries since we have no electricity. Even our neighbours are tired of us asking to keep our food in their fridges and asking to charge our phone. It is a serious inconvenience. Why are they keeping our money because they are not giving the service we paid for? What was the money for is they do not have cables to connect us? We are struggling. The money we spend every day is too much”, said Bonisiwe.

Mthabela family was not the only one waiting to be connected, some community members also said that the municipality told them to buy cables so they can have electricity connected to their house yet nothing has been done.

Other issues raised by the community was the cost of prepaid electricity that was expensive with lesser units they even suggested that Eskom should take over and manage the crisis in eMondlo and surrounding areas. The community in Section B also claimed that they were promised an AVM machine in 2009 since they had to travel a long distance to Section A to buy electricity but that promise was never delivered. Additional complains were poor roads infrastructure and water shortages.

Acting Municipal Manager, Shongwe said that he was going to investigate the matter urgently.

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