eMBALENHLE – Ms Thandi Ngxonono, executive mayor of Govan Mbeki Municipality, predicted a future without electricity problems in eMbalenhle.
She has high hopes that this will be the last winter that electricity problems will be experienced in the area.
Speaking at the Govan Mbeki Multi-stakeholder engagement session hosted by Sasol recently, Ms Ngxonono urged residents to be patient as the process of addressing the problems are underway.
She said the municipality is working with various stakeholders including Sasol.
“Some people do not understand why we are having electricity supply problems in eMbalenhle.
“For a very long time, our capacity has been, decreasing because the number of people are increasing daily.
“Electricity theft and ghost vending is also a problem.
“However, we have appointed a service provider who is already on-site upgrading the substation.
“This is the last winter eMbalenhle will have problems with electricity, provided the provider does not disappoint us.
“We have a committed municipal manager who is working tirelessly to find lasting solutions to the problem.”
The municipality appointed Bigen Africa as the service provider to address the current electricity crisis in eMbalenhle.
The company will bridge finance and build two 11kV Double Circuit Chickadee lines from the Bracken Station to the existing municipal ring, switching stations to address the current capacity shortage of 10MVA.
They will also bridge finance to ensure that adequate supply is made available.
According to the municipality, eMbalenhle is supplied solely by Langverwagcht Substation which is fed from the Eskom MTS Sol 132/22kV by two 20MVA transformers using two 22kV Wolf lines.
The contractor has already installed the electricity poles.
Ms Ngxonono said: “Currently, loadshedding is being applied to deal with the existing shortage of capacity of about 10MVA during peak hours.”
eMbalenhle has been experiencing electricity problems for nearly a decade without solutions from the council.
Concerned residents wrote to the office of the Public Protector in November requesting that GMM should be investigated due to their failure to supply the needed electricity.
The office recently responded to the complaints and said that in the preliminary investigation, the municipality acknowledged they have received the complaints and the Eskom account is in arrears.
The municipality, however, refuted that the electricity supply interruptions are caused by their inability to pay the Eskom account.
According to the response from the office of the Public Protector to the complainants, the municipality stated that they are in a process of refurbishing their infrastructure to ensure that the supply of electricity is not interrupted and they did not received any complaints from the community since they embarked on the project.
Another organisation, eMbalenhle Residents Association, approached the Public Protector and the Human Rights Commission to launch an investigation.
