Residents of Wards 11,14 and 12 in eMbalenhle locked the technical yard of the Govan Mbeki Municipality and forced the electricians to the substation in Ext 5 to switch on the electricity on Friday morning, April 22.
This happened after residents had lived without electricity for several days.
Ward 14 councillor, Jabu Zwane, and the council speaker, Fikile Magagamela who is also the Ward 11 councillor, were shocked when angry residents stormed their homes and demanded electricity.
Although some extensions have not been affected by the municipal load-shedding since the arrival of the mobile transformer at the Bracken substation, those who still receive electricity from the substation at
Ext 5 claim to be experiencing worse electricity cuts than before.
They even took their anger to the municipality’s Facebook page where they claim that the municipality misled the community last year with statements that there will be less load-shedding after the arrival of a mobile transformer.
When addressing the media on Tuesday, April 26, the executive mayor, Nhlakanipho Zuma said the municipality discovered that the majority of the consumers in eMbalenhle are illegally connected and are using electricity for free.
Zuma said the municipality is in a process of installing 23 transformers, 10 for eMbalenhle North and 13 for South.
The mayor also said they want the project to be completed by May and it will assist the municipality in reducing the overloading and burning of transformers.
“We are also initiating the installation of 1 000 electricity meters, depending on our financial capacity. The aim is to have control over the use of electricity.
“That will even improve our revenue collection capacity,” said Zuma.
Zuma said Eskom took 3MVA from eMbalenhle seven years ago. The substation’s capacity was reduced from 37 to 34MVA.
The municipality applied an additional 20MVA to Eskom from the Bracken substation.
Eskom approved that application and the 20MVA electricity is supplied through a mobile transformer while they are still waiting for a permanent transformer.
“While we have improved the electricity capacity in eMbalenhle, we are still faced with municipal load-shedding in other sections.”
Zuma also appeals to all the community to use electricity sparingly as a harsh winter is approaching.
