Govan Mbeki Municipality’s executive mayor, Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma, the speaker of the council, Ms Fikile Nyembe, and Ms Thandi Ngxonono, who is a member of the mayoral committee, recently visited the municipal offices that were set alight during last month’s community protest in eMbalenhle.
The community was in an uproar about the constant electricity problems in their town.
Mr Zuma said the purpose of the visit was to see what was needed to rebuild it, just in case the insurance refuse to again pay for the repairs.
“We have begun a negotiation process with our insurance to see if we can agree on something.
“We hope the community will see how much damage they have caused,” he said.
“If the insurance company refuses to pay, we will have to spend a lot of money to rebuild these offices,” said Mr Zuma.
The municipal offices, the municipal fleet and the offices at the technical yard were also torched during an electricity protest in 2018.
The insurance money paid out to rebuild the offices and to replace the fleet.
The damages cost the municipality millions of rands.
Mr Zuma and Mr Fidel Mlombo, speaker of the Mpumalanga Legislature, last week visited the Bracken substation and ended up at eMbalenhle.
Both leaders were not impressed with the slow progress to get the substation up and running.
“We have a concern with the contractor that is doing work here at eMbalenhle.
“They promised us that they would speed up the connections.
“They are telling us that they need extra two weeks to deal with small substations. We disagree with them, we are giving them a few days to complete the work,” said Mr Fidel Mlombo.
Mr Zuma said the municipality and Eskom are done with connections and only settings remain, which can be done once the connection work in eMbalenhle is completed.
“Connections from eMbalenhle are moving at a slow pace. It was supposed to take three to four days to finish, but there have been delays.
“Once these connections have completed, we switch on,” said Mr Zuma.
The exact date when the substation will be switched on is not yet known.
