No light at the end of the tunnel for Bethal residents

Residents of Bethal and eMzinoni are once again bearing the brunt of continuous, lengthy power outages.

While the country is experiencing scheduled, national Eskom load-shedding, residents in Bethal and eMzinoni are hit with additional load-shedding implemented by the Govan Mbeki Municipality.

This is because the supply grid in this area is taking strain due to the very high demand.

The Ridge Times has reported in numerous additions on the negative and inhuman effects GMM’s implemented load-shedding has on the community and businesses.

Although there was a victory in a legal battle when Bethal and eMzinoni Community for Services (Beks) took GMM, Gert Sibande District Municipality and respondents to court, it would seem that not much was gained.

The judgment places both municipalities under a court order, compelling them to provide continuous reports (every six months for the next 36 months) to the court regarding the electricity crisis and the progress made in resolving their issues with Eskom.

Should they fail to do so, the community will be entitled to apply to hold executive members of the municipality in contempt of court.

See Ridge Times webpage https://www.citizen.co.za/ridge-times/279043/victory-for-residents-2/ for the order that was granted.

“In my eyes, the court case has delivered nothing positive,” said a resident.

Residents say that the money used for the court case could rather have been used to fix roads.

“Hundreds and thousands of rand are down the drain,” said the resident.

Residents have also taken to social media platforms to voice their anger at being without electricity for hours on end.

There had been complaints from residents in Eland Street that had been without electricity for more than 25 hours.

Bethal experiences anything from four to 10 hours a day (if not more) of load-shedding when combining both Eskom and GMM’s implemented load-shedding.

When the lights come back on after Eskom load-shedding, then it goes off again for GMM’s additional implemented load-shedding.

When GMM’s implemented load-shedding is done, then there are areas still without power due to cable faults. This is caused by old and poorly maintained infrastructure.

Residents have had enough and cannot bear another cold dark winter as they have been for the past couple of years.

Residents want to know why those who are not paying for electricity are not being cut off, while the paying consumer is suffering and being deprived of a basic human right.

They also claim to not understand how the demand is so high when the power is mostly off.

“Those who pay their rates and taxes, and purchase prepaid electricity have to suffer. But I bet you those that don’t, have all their appliances running and have got a smile on their faces,” said a resident on a social media platform.

In response to the public questioning the recent victory of the court case, Ziyaad Dangor, media spokesperson for Becs said: “The court follows the process, if there is an appeal you go back to the same state that you were in.”

According to Dangor GMM has told the court that they are in the process of working with Eskom of remedying the situation as far as payment goes.

“GMM are appealing their loss which leaves us in limbo again. It is two-state organs fighting against each other.

“Because of their appeals and utilising the court system it still leaves us in the dark,” said Dangor.

He said once again residents are victims of the country’s laws which GMM are using to their fullest.

“It is not just a victory, there are appeals and again appeals then counter appeals. The court has granted GMM three years to remedy the situation,” said Dangor.

He said that this is not an overnight fix.

“We said from day one this is not an overnight fix. It is going to be a long hard winter again,” said Dangor.

He went on to say GMM does not have the funds to remedy the situation and that Becs will return to their attorneys in the next week.

“We are asking our attorneys to go back to court to say that our electricity has to be restored while they are fighting each other.

“But again this is a prosses, there is nothing we can do to hastily do it. It is what it is and how the system works,” said Dangor.

Dangor said it can not be expected for a 20-years poorly run town to be fixed in one court judgement and overnight.

“Eventually we will see a difference but it is not going to happen while state resources are being abused,” concluded Dangor.

Responding to the Ridge Times, Lucky Mhlongo, acting head of communications for GMM said: “GMM is in solidarity with the community members of Bethal and eMzinoni to eradicate these power outages permanently.

“The community is cognizsant of the fact that we are dealing with the electricity challenges in Bethal and eMzinoni. But we must emphasise that this process is ongoing and the results would not be immediate,” said Mhlongo.

He went on to say that currently there is a company on the ground assisting the municipality in solving and addressing the electricity crisis.

The municipality will be implementing load-shedding from 5:00-21:00 daily.

Load-shedding should be expected to go beyond 23:00 depending on the weather condition.

“The municipality reserves the right to change the schedule without notice,” concluded Mhlongo.