BETHAL – “I will personally open a charge of murder against GMM and the mayor if anything happens to my daughter due to this load shedding.”
These were the words of angry resident, Ms Susan Van Dyk, whose daughter, Ms Ashley Van Dyk (27), suffers from muscular dystrophy and needs 24-hours oxygen supply.
Most of Ashley’s equipment is electronic – from her oxygen supply to her electronic wheelchair and even her bed which enables her to sit or lie down.
The family located to Bethal two years ago and loves the town, however, like most residents, they daily face challenges with the supply of electricity.
Every second their daughter is without oxygen, can be fatal.
Ms Van Dyk said Ashley would turn completely blue from head to toe and her eyes turn bloodshot red of a lack of oxygen.
This happens when the family need to convert from electricity to a generator.
“We cannot leave her alone for a second. We have even resorted to working shifts through the night to make sure Ashley does not go without oxygen,” said Ms Van Dyk.
The family recently had to replace an oxygen machine which broke due to the power outage.
They have also resorted to installing backup solar panels, however, these panels only supply a few hours of power.
“GMM does not stick to the schedules. When we have Eskom load shedding, these schedules are adhered to. If we know our power is going to go off at a certain time, we are then prepared, but not with GMM’s additional load shedding schedules.
“They never keep to the times and we can be left without power for hours upon end,” said Ms Van Dyk.
Other side effects of not having oxygen, are the swelling and sores on Ashley’s tongue.
Her mother said that her tongue swells up even worse and goes blue when she is short of oxygen.
“Besides us, what about the elderly that also depend on oxygen machines? Some of these people don’t have children close by who speaks on their behalf.
“How does our mayor let people live like this? It is inhumane!
“Not everyone has the financial means to go off the grid, not everyone has the financial means to buy a generator, let alone fill it up.
“Our elderly depend on the little income they have. They can’t still fork out extra money for petrol for a generator,” said Ms Van Dyk.
In the meantime, residents in Bethal and eMzinoni have taken to social media to raise their anger at the lack of electricity supply towards GMM.
“The GMM load shedding is in overdrive. Again they are switching transformers on and off like switches at their discretion,” said an angry resident.
“They imposed throttling on services that result in a loss in income, yet the salaries are paid before vendors.
“Why are their salaries not being throttled? They created this mess!”
The resident said GMM is aware of the illegal connections, yet there is no accountability.
The resident questioned what had happened to the previous mayor?
“She just left for a new candidate to try his best. Functional companies don’t appoint a manager to try his best. It seems as if GMM is now a manager “school” that’s busier than OR Tambo with arrivals and departures.”
The resident said that many political parties are using this situation to win votes, but in the process divide the residents only for the incompetent to win by the majority because of people voting with their hearts and not their brains.
“GMM is only interested to enrich themselves. There is no economic growth in this area and our municipality and only the municipality should be held accountable for that.
“Get the incompetent behind bars for violating our human rights and mismanagement of funds. We have people dictating our future and growth and yet they do the opposite and we must just live with it. Why do they have so much power and have the power over us?” said the resident.
DA councillor, Ms Mariaan Chamberlain, said it is inhumane and unacceptable that residents are being deprived of their basic human rights.
“I am on roughly five WhatsApp groups and as soon as the power goes out, the residents begin to blame eMzinoni.
“Residents can’t understand why Bethal does not have electricity but eMzinoni’s lights are still on,” said Ms Chamberlain.
She said the current electricity situation is due to 25 years of neglect under the ANC run government.
“There has been no maintenance during all of these years.”
She said the new service provider (Enpower Machite) can’t fix all 25 years of problems in a month.
Ms Chamberlain has been subjected to the most vulgar verbal abuse by residents taking out their frustration on her due to the lack of electricity supply, but she understands the frustration.
Ms Chamberlain said protest action is not the answer.
“If you set things on fire and burn things down, we are going to be left with nothing. Burning things down will not solve the problem today, tomorrow, next week, next month. Your problems will remain. You will still not have electricity.
“There are many families and elderly relying on oxygen,” said Ms Chamberlain.She said not everyone can afford to pay for electricity and then they still have to fork out money for a backup generator.
“Even if people have backup oxygen cylinders, these empty quickly. Some rely on these cylinders at night when there is no electricity and they need to sleep.”
She said the municipality gave feedback that, besides the Eskom load shedding and implemented load shedding by GMM, the municipality is facing many technical issues and that residents must make alternative plans.
GMM’s executive mayor Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma did not yet respond to questions at the time of going to press.
