BETHAL – All that residents of Bethal and eMzinoni can wish for this Christmas, is that lights will stay on. While Eskom has implemented national load shedding, Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) hit the residents of Bethal and eMzinoni with additional load shedding schedules for December.
Earlier this year, residents were left cold and in the dark for most of the lockdown and winter. In most cases it cost businesses unnecessary extra expenses to keep trading, this all in a time the country had been facing its own economical crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In some cases, businesses closed because they were unable to trade, not only because of Covid-19, but also because of the lack of electricity.
Businesses had to fork out thousands of rands due to income loss or making alternative plans just to keep trading.
Infrastructure such as transformers is also not in the best of conditions. Some caught on fire because of the continuous on and off switching of electricity.
This year has proven that businesses, organisations and residents will not give up without a fight and that the small community will continue their struggle against GMM.
“When are we going to put an end to this nonsense of GGM, this can’t wait until the next election,” said an angry resident.
The Bethal & eMzinoni Community for Services (Becs) assured the residents of Bethal and eMzinoni that they are still going on with their legal process, however, this is a long and lengthy matter.
To top it all, areas in Bethal has also been bearing the brunt of water throttling, leaving some areas without water for weeks. This all because of GMM’s failure to keep to their payment agreement with Rand Water.
Rand Water throttled the whole of GMM’s water supply by 40 per cent.
The high lying areas, especially in Bethal, have been seeing little to no water pressure. Although GMM had sent water trucks to various drop off points, the water supply remained questionable when it came to human consumption.
“We as Bethal and eMzinoni residents must pay for the corruption they committed, no one is getting arrested for this corruption, but we must keep on paying for services that they supply when they want.
“They don’t have money to pay Eskom and Rand Water, but they have money to pay service providers because they are benefiting from those service providers or they own them,” said an angry resident.
The Ridge Times sent an email on 12 November, as well as a supporting WhatsApp message pertaining the same questions to GMM’s head of communication, Mr Benzi Soko. In this email, the following was asked:
• Why is there additional load shedding again for Bethal and eMzinoni?
• If the previous notified maximum demand was upped to 32MVA from its low 18.72MVA for Bethal and eMzinoni had an increase to 13MVA from the 8MVA, why has the NMD amount decreased again?
• What is the current NMD for Bethal and eMzinoni?
• What is the amount owing to Eskom? • When can residents expect additional load shedding to end?
The Ridge Times is yet to receive a response. For additional load shedding schedules visit the Govan Mbeki Municipality Facebook page.
