Ratanda power to be restored - Baloyi
2012-04-02 12:17
Johannesburg - The electricity supply to residents of Ratanda, in Heidelberg, will be restored even if they owe money on other municipal services, said Co-operative Governance Minister Richard Baloyi said.
Addressing the residents on Sunday, Baloyi said a task team set up to investigate the causes of last month's violent protests had found that access to electricity and its costs were the main concerns.
As a result, he said there would be an immediate delinking of the various services when managing payment defaults.
No pre-paid electricity users would be blocked from buying electricity if they still owed money for other services.
"In fact, the municipality has started to unblock those people," Baloyi said, according to a statement on Monday.
He said people whose electricity had been disconnected for non-payment of electricity would be reconnected.
The department would also investigate the future viability of distribution to the area by the municipality or Eskom.
It would also look into concerns that the tariffs were too high and that they had been decided on without consultation.
"We request the community to interpret this report as a contribution to pave a way for the Ratanda community to return to the peaceful zone it is known [as]," Baloyi said.
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