Electricity woes for Protea Glen residents
It seems every community is having a problem with electricity this winter.
“I moved here in 1991, there were only a few houses in our street then, so it means there was only enough power for the houses that were there. They never increased the supply as phase one grew,” said Joyce Moletsane, a pioneer resident of Protea Glen Phase one.
Development in the Protea Glen area began in 1986 and in 1990 the first 1315 stands were serviced since then a further 27 extensions were approved according to Township Realtors.
The development has however not been without its problems as residents of Protea Glen Phase One have been experiencing problems with their electricity supply consistently since the first stands were first serviced.
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The residents have been suffering the same fate for the past 27 years and they recently took to the streets to express their frustration with the situation.
“We closed the streets and we still didn’t get help, what more do they want us to do?” said a phase one resident who wishes to remain anonymous.
The problem according to the residents intensified when Itemogele Primary School was built and was also connected to the same meter box.
The transformer in the meter box is overloaded according to the residents and has not been changed to accommodate the growth of the township since it was installed. The meter box also poses a safety hazard as it is leaking oil.
Efforts to fix the problem have however been marred by issues between the community and ward 13 councillor, George Mahlangu, and the fact that out of 98 houses in the block only seven buy electricity consistently.
This has led to Eskom requesting an audit of the houses in the block following a meeting with the councillor and delegates from the community which was met with disdain by the community who feel they are being unfairly treated.
“Our main concern is why the audit must start with us. What about the others and why is it only a few streets? I came here in 1999 and I found the same problem, we’ve had many meetings about this but no solutions,” said phase one resident, Rosinah Mogotsi.
Residents are also dissatisfied with Mahlangu’s handling of the situation as they feel that he is standing in the way of finding the solution to the problem.
“When Eskom technicians were here they told us that this box is old and it should’ve been changed already but the councillor doesn’t want the box to be changed,” said Bernadine Xaba, another phase one resident.
Mahlangu however vehemently denies these claims. “I initiated a meeting because I had complaints from that side, the first meeting was on the first of February where we spoke to Eskom about the challenge. We said to Eskom, can we then fix the problem in summer because in winter there’s going to be the same kind of problem,” he explained.
He notes that following the protest, there was a meeting held with the community where a delegation was chosen to represent the community in all meetings with Eskom from that point forward. This delegation was however changed at the meeting scheduled with Eskom on June 28 according to Mahlangu.
He noted that he could not recognize this delegation as they had not been present at the first meeting with Eskom.
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“In the absence of the old delegation, I said that we can’t talk about phase one because there’s no delegation from phase one. If these people are from phase one, we don’t know how they came about and we don’t know what mandate they have,” Mahlangu further alluded.
Eskom and the community are currently in talks to find a permanent solution to the problem that’s been plaguing the community since its inception.
The solution that has been brought forward is possibly getting a separate meter box for the school. Eskom, however, says it needs more data to explore this possibility, hence the need for an audit of the block according to Mahlangu.
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