Komani protests fizzle as lights go on – but blame game heats up
Power was restored to some areas of Komani on Monday.
Frustrations over a two-week outage and municipal silence drove residents of Madeira Park in Komani to the streets at the weekend.
Residents said they had received no information from the Enoch Mgijima municipality on the progress with replacing the transformer and cables that blew up.
More protests on Monday were cut short at noon when the lights came on in most of Madeira Park.
Enoch Mgijima mayor Sisisi Tolashe and administrator Vuyo Mlokoti last week promised Komani residents several different times that electricity would be restored, but each time it did not happen, and the replacement transformer only arrived on Sunday.
Municipal spokesperson Gcobani Msindwana said engineers had worked hard trying to restore the power supply.
“On Monday, power was restored in 85% of the affected areas. The areas that still have problems are Kings Park and parts of Madeira Park,” he said.
Madeira Park resident Mzimkhulu Madikane said: “The residents saw they were nearing the end of the second week without electricity and there was no word from the municipality on when power will be restored. There was no formal communication, no SMS, nothing.”
“There were days that were set by the municipality for the electricity to be restored but that never happened. We saw the municipality did not keep its deadlines and they kept on extending them.” This infuriated residents, he added.
The DA in Enoch Mgijima pointed the finger at council speaker Mzoxolo Peter for the protests.
DA councillor Malibongwe Xhelisilo said Madeira Park ward councillor Chris de Wet had informed council he would be out of the country.
“When a councillor is not available, the speaker acts as a caretaker councillor.
“Peter should have updated the community of that ward and the protest could have been prevented,” he charged.
Xhelisilo said he was planning to submit a motion of no confidence against Peter in the next council meeting.
Peter said: “I only got that [notice of De Wet’s absence] when it was raised as an apology in a council meeting on October 5. Unfortunately it was never indicated how long the period of his absence would be. Mayor Sisisi Tolashe, chief whip Funeka Sopapazi-Lungisa, administrator Vuyo Mlokoti and I facilitated a meeting with the two affected wards with the purpose of taking the community into our confidence and sharing information.”
Peter said they had initiated an operation centre to continuously update communities on the outage.
He said: “The unfortunate part is that on the weekend I was out of town for a family funeral. I did not get the formal notice from De Wet indicating his absence and the period.
“If I had, I would have summoned a councillor to take care of his responsibilities.”