BETHAL – Residents from Bethal and eMzinoni are set for protest action tonight, 19 August.
The crowd of disgruntled residents has grown considerably at the Sasol N17 petrol station since this morning. People from all ages, races and gender are part of the angry mob. They have split up into sub-groups that moved out to the various entrances to the town.
A bakkie loaded with tyres arrived at the garage earlier and the residents are now burning these at the town entrances to show the Govan Mbeki Municipality that they have been pushed past breaking point with the electricity situation in Bethal and eMzinoni.
These residents reached their limit yesterday after being without electricity for more than 24 hours, mainly due to the municipal electricians who downed tools because the municipality has not yet paid their overtime.
Bethal is already burdened with additional load shedding because Eskom refuses to supply more electricity to the municipality. The expanding electricity need is larger than the notified maximum demand.
Although the actions of last night led to the restoring of electricity to some houses, numerous others are still without.
“We cannot live like this. There is hardly ever power in Bethal. Even though we have pre-paid meters, we cannot have electricity. This is ridiculous,” said a resident.
At this stage all the routes into town have been blocked off with the burning tyres. Talk around the fire is that the protesters plan to keep this up until the town’s electricity is completely restored.
