eMBALENHLE – The Govan Mbeki Municipality missed their October deadline to complete the electricity upgrades in eMbalenhle.
The municipality announced in March that they appointed Bigen Africa as the service provider to address the current electricity crisis.
The company was expected to 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 were expected to find money to ensure that adequate supply is made available.
During the sod-turning event which was held at Extension 7 at the time, Ms Thandi Ngxonono promised locals that the upgrades will be done in October.
However, so far only poles have been installed as part of the upgrades.
In the meanwhile, residents are still struggling with the electricity supply.
Almost every day a certain section is without power in the area.
At some point, the electricity upgrades were placed on hold for a few days due to the municipality facing problems.
The contractor is currently still on-site installing cables and the work continues.
The executive mayor said that the completion is 70 percent done and they are waiting for some processes to be done by Eskom.
