An end to Ezibeleni’s woes?
Municipality says it is receiving attention
EZIBELENI’S power woes are continuing, but the Enoch Mgijima Municipality this week assured residents that the problems were receiving attention.
The Rep recently reported (“Repair Ezibeleni” September 16 ) that residents of the area were up in arms about various service delivery challenges, including potholes and continued disruptions in the water and power supplies.
The cuts in the water supply were ascribed to the continuing drought and severe water shortages in the district by the Chris Hani District Municipality.
At the time, Enoch Mgijima Municipality spokesman Fundile Feketshane said power cables had exploded in Ezibeleni following a maintenance programme by Eskom during the previous weekend.
Feketshane said while projects were underway in Ezibeleni, a lack of financial resources to meet all needs was experienced. He urged residents to attend IDP and budget meetings to understand the development trajectory in the area.
Following continued complaints about power cuts after the initial story in The Rep, the newspaper asked an Ezibeleni resident to keep a log of outages for a week.
According to said log, the following power outages were experienced throughout Ezibeleni during the period: September 22: 9am to 1.50pm; September 23: 7pm to 7.42pm; September 26: 3.55pm to 7pm and September 27: close to 1am to 5.20am.
Business owners and residents alike have decried the situation as not being conducive towards business and development.
Feketshane said the municpality’s five-year electrical master plan was being implemented to address related concerns.
“It is true that from time to time there can be electrical disruptions owing to various reasons not limited to disaster and wind.
“However, we have also opened a Whats-App group for ward councillors and technical services so as to speed up the turnaround time to respond to community queries.”
He said the query relating to the latest outages had been resolved, and the community should call the customer care line to ensure a speedy response to outages.