Communities battle for power

2008-01-21 20:06

Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane

Tonga - For the past seven years, two communities in Mpumalanga have been living off stolen electricity.

But the two communities in Tonga, near the Mozambican border, are now fighting over the illegal power supply because their settlements have grown so much that there's not enough power for all the households.

The one group is now calling the other group parasites and telling them to go and buy their own transformer.

"We had no electricity throughout the festive season or since the new year started. And when we do have, the power cuts suddenly, causing a lot of damage to our appliances," said the representative of the one group, Thomas Mhlongo.

He said the only reason residents had become izinyoka (snakes), a term Eskom calls them for stealing electricity, was because the Nkomazi local municipality had failed to listen to them.

"Hey, ndoda. It's so bad and no laughing matter. People are pointing guns at each other because of this one transformer. If you have no gun, you shut up or get shot," he said.

Mhlongo said the municipality had promised to budget for an additional transformer in its 2005 budget, but failed to do so.

"I used my own car to transport people to fruitless meetings with municipal authorities," he said.

He said they often had to return home because their ward councillor, Freddy Ngomane, failed to arrive at the meetings.

"This councillor! We don't even know what he is because every time we go to him, he promises to come to our meetings but he never does so," said Mhlongo.

He said, according to some quotations he'd seen, a small transformer that could serve ten households would cost R5 000.

Ngomane declined to comment and referred questions to the municipality.

Municipal spokesperson Zibonelo Shabangu refused to comment unless he received questions in writing.

- African Eye