Booming town with too little power and water
LEPHALALE is straining under a shortage of power, which has put all developments in the small town on hold.
It is an irony, given that the town feeds the workforce of Matimba, the biggest dry-cooled power station in the world, and Medupi, which will be the fourthlargest coal-fired power station in the world.
The first thing you notice as you drive into Lephalale is the vast number of signs for guesthouses. Their clients are mostly construction managers of the myriad companies that are contracted to Medupi.
In some cases, they have moved into these guesthouses for years at a time.
There is no alternative accommodation because services in the town — power, water and sanitation — are stretched to breaking point.
Bob Naidoo, the municipal manager, said it was notable that the town had not collapsed under the strain of the rapid influx of tens of thousands of people.
He said work had begun to expand the capacity of water, power, sanitation and roads.
Lephalale was given a grant of R500-million for this purpose.
Naidoo said the upgraded water network, costing R180million, would be in operation from 2014, using water from the Mokolo River. And a new substation, which would triple existing capacity, would be in place in the first quarter of 2015.
In the meantime, all the available “essential services” are being channelled to temporary accommodation in which workers are housed.
This has been one of the unions’ biggest gripes: permanent housing that could have become homes in the future has not been developed. With essential services being directed into temporary homes, no new accommodation will be available before 2015.
The dearth of housing has meant that some workers travel up to 50km each way to get to work. Still more stay in nearby shacks with no access to water, power or sanitation.
Those who own property are making a killing.
Arona Rossouw, an estate agent at Sold Properties, said a 150m² three-bedroom house could command a rental of between R13 000 and R15 000 a month.
Mandla Zithu, an Eskom shop steward working at the Matimba power station, said the management told workers living in temporary accommodation that permanent
Some workers travel up to 50km to get to work
houses would become available once Medupi had been completed.
Given the market prices just for rent, what is currently available is well out of the reach of the average blue-collar worker.
There are plans to build a new town on the nearby Altoostyd farm for people of all income levels, providing 5 000 homes at first and growing to 30 000 houses in the next 10 to 20 years.
At present, with guesthouses booked up months in advance and services in short supply, that remains a pipe dream.
There is no lawsuit on the cards, but the family of Mozambican taxi driver Mido Macie believe they are due compensation for their loss.
Their attorney Jose Nascimento confirmed he had been hired to examine their options after Macie died from injuries sustained while in police custody. Cellphone video footage showed how he was tied and dragged behind a police van earlier this month.
Nascimento said the family had no intention of suing the South African government “at this stage”, preferring to negotiate a reasonable settlement. “They will only sue if they are not happy with the settlement offer,” said Nascimento.
Nine policemen arrested in connection with Macie’s death are due back in court on April 12. — Khanyi Ndabeni
A fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin was found dead at his home in Surrey, the Guardian reported yesterday.
Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky, 67, had lived in the UK for more than a decade.
Last year he lost an expensive court case against fellowRussian Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club. He had survived several assassination attempts, the newspaper reported.
A teenager from the Vaal, Gauteng, was admitted to the Ladysmith Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal after suffering from dehydration while hiking yesterday.
ER 24’s spokesman Werner Vermaak said the 17-year-old boy was airlifted by helicopter to a waiting ambulance after falling ill while hiking with his father in the Drakensberg Mountains. — Staff reporter