BETHAL – Residents and businesses continue to battle daily without electricity supply in Bethal.
Struggles of electricity supply have been ongoing for more than a year. Residents of Bethal and eMzinoni are now saying that Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) is holding them hostage.
Resident and business owner, Mr Ziyaad Dangor, who is also the media spokesman for Bethal and eMzinoni Community for Services (Becs), recently spoke on a national radio station, RSG, about the daily struggles and the current court case against GMM, the Gert Sibande District Municipality (GSDM), Eskom and other parties.
He explained that Bethal and eMzinoni are being throttled for exceeding the notified maximum demand (NMD) that Eskom refuses to increase because of GMM’s debt.
“Residents sit without electricity anywhere between four to 20 hours a day. Eskom says GMM is not paying their debt,” said Mr Dangor.
He explained businesses are struggling to supply fuel for generators. For his business alone, it costs him R400 to fill up every day.
“Woolworths closed their doors as a result of no electricity. At the moment no new businesses are opening in Bethal.
“Older businesses are going ahead and making plans for small generators and inverter systems to continue with the business,” said Mr Dangor.
He also expressed his concern over the property market. Poor service delivery is driving people out of Bethal.
“GMM is punishing the paying public. They are holding the residents of Bethal hostage,” said Mr Dangor.
He explained Becs’ court case against GMM, funded by the community, is scheduled for August 31.
Enpower Machite, the company that has been appointed as the service provider to improve the electrical network already invested more than R10-million and has been facing major challenges to perform according to the contract.
A meeting was held with GSDM’s municipal manager, Mr Absenia Habile, on the means forward for the team to continue work.
“The MM gave GSDM (as the implementing agent) a green light to proceed with appointing Enpower Machite,” said Ms Tess Maroos, media liaison for Enpower Machite.
“The biggest challenge we are currently facing, is to ensure that we adhere to the relevant legislation, such as the OHS Act, Electricity Act and the License Conditions Act, as set out by NERSA (NRS 048 – Quality of Supply and 047 – Quality of Service), which are not being adhered to.”
She said NERSA also dictates that a certain percentage of revenue has to be spent on maintenance, which has not been the case for a long time and has led to a huge maintenance backlog that requires urgent attention.
“Currently, we are running the risk of unsafe networks falling on us. Another concern is the way switchgear is being switched on without the necessary personal protective equipment.”
She explained the number of times that a particular breaker is switched on due to load-shedding further increases the risk of equipment failure and fatal accidents.
“We have plans to perform the necessary maintenance, upgrade the protection system to ensure that faults are cleared as soon as is technically possible, and also reduce the affected area as far as possible.
“It is therefore extremely important that we are given the 16.2- appointment, to ensure that we manage all the identified risks, as it is equally important to have real-time visibility of the demand from a central point, to ensure that load is managed adequately.
“We do also have plans in place to implement a SCADA system, revenue permitted, that will give us visibility on the network.
“We are currently reinstating the geyser control system in town to enable us to switch off geysers in town during periods of high demand in an attempt to not switch off the entire house.”
The team is also in the process of converting small power users to prepaid meters in an attempt to show the revenue that was generated. This will be used adequately to increase network reliability through maintenance.
“The businesses that we have engaged with, are supporting this initiative since their businesses are affected.
“They see this as a last resort to get their businesses functional and viable again.”
Ms Maroos said by doing this, will stimulate business growth and address job creation.
“We have learned during the last couple of weeks that a lot of businesses are planning to close operations in Bethal and re-locate to other towns and cities. This will be detrimental to the financial sustainability of the entire town,” concluded Ms Maroos.
GMM said the technicians from Enpower Machite are continuing to work tirelessly to do maintenance to the electrical infrastructure at various places in Bethal and eMzinoni.
“Residents of both towns should also take note that while the maintenance of electrical infrastructure is taking place, the municipality will also switch off overloaded networks to protect the network and for the safety of the public,” said Mr Donald Green, acting head of communications for GMM.
He said electricity will be switched back when it is safe to do so.
He urged residents to cooperate in reducing electricity consumption and demand by continuing to use electricity sparingly.
