Winnie uplifted birthplace Mbongweni

LATE Struggle stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is credited withfor bringing light and joy to her birthplace of Mbongweni and surrounding villages of the Eastern Cape, when she used her influence and political power to ensure they were quickly connected to the electricity grid.

Delighted villagers said it was thanks to Madikizela-Mandela’s intervention that parts of the village and its neighbouring areas now have electricity.

In 2008, fed-up villagers expressed their unhappiness with the slow pace of service delivery from the Mbizana Local Municipality by dumping the ANC en masse and joining Cope.

Sensing the embarrassment of having her place of birth falling under an opposition party, Madikizela-Mandela moved in quickly and promised villagers improved service delivery.

She summoned residents to a field in Mbongweni and promised even more improvements to service delivery.

She slaughtered a cow, bought sports kits for the Mbongweni Primary School, where she started her schooling in the late 1930s.

One villager recalled her saying: “Yekani lento niyenzayo, ndizonifakela umbane (Stop what you are doing, I will ensure that you have electricity).

“In no time, they started connecting her home, schools, the clinic and the nurses’ home,” Malixole Madikizela, who lives in a shack in Mbongweni, said.

Madikizela-Mandela apparently also promised villagers a tarred road connecting them to Bizana, the small town that serves as the commercial hub for the surrounding villages.

The municipality has promised that once the projects are completed, it will be left with a backlog figure of about 6 736 households or 14% of the households in the municipality with no electricity.

In areas where electricity will not be provided soon, the municipality is providing a solar system through assistance from the Department of Energy.

About R25 million was approved as the Integrated National Electrification Programme allocation for 2016/2017 while the municipality also received an amount of R40.4 million from the Development Bank of Southern Africa through front loading to speed up the provision of electricity.

But the municipality has warned that addressing backlogs, especially electrification, has meant that it has had to utilise its reserves and these have been depleted.

Meanwhile, the Madikizela family was in Qunu yesterday to officially inform the Mandelas of the death of their daughter.

The practice, known as ukubika, entails officially informing the in-laws of the death of their wife in the case of a married or divorced couple.

The Madikizelas are also due in Johannesburg for talks with the Mandelas in Gauteng and government officials.