eMBALENHLE – Dreams of having electricity without municipal load shedding, especially during winter, have recently become a reality for eMbalenhle residents when a mobile transformer arrived at the Bracken substation.
Desperate residents have recently taken to the street to demonstrate against the non-stop municipal load shedding. This protest led to the torching of the newly built municipal offices and a 16-year-old boy was shot dead.
The same offices were burnt down three years ago when residents demanded that Govan Mbeki Municipality hand over the electricity supply to Eskom.
Many businesses were torched and looted, including eMbalenhle Mall, during that protest action.
Mpumalanga premier, Ms Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, came to the stadium and promised residents that she will request the municipality to give over eMbalenhle’s electricity supply to Ekom, but some processes were to be followed.
The council resolved to have a committee that was supposed to facilitate the process and was supposed to report back to the council about developments and engagements with National Energy Regulator (NERSA) and Eskom.
The then Govan Mbeki executive mayor, Ms Thandi Ngxonono, launched the Bracken substation project and conducted a soil turning event at the ring 3 substation where she told residents that they have appointed Bigen Africa to work on electricity upgrades at eMbalenhle.
She said at the time that Bigen Africa and was going to have the Bracken substation up and running by the end of October 2019, and promised that electricity woes will end.
This big day has finally come, almost three years later.
The current Govan Mbeki executive mayor, Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma, said when addressing the media that residents now need to pay because this doesn’t come for free, and the municipality now needs to pay its Eskom debt.
According to the Mr Zuma, residents can soon expect a change in electricity supply.
