By Kopano Dibakwane
Community members of Emalahleni gathered at Kwa-Guqa substation to welcome the arrival of a new transformer on Monday. The area of Kwa-Guqa was affected by power outages which reportedly led to a week of violent protests and destruction of property.
The executive mayor at Emalahleni local municipality, Conny Nkalitshana, was also present to address the community members who were adversely affected by the power outages. She started her address by apologising for any error on her part, which might have led to her attack by the angry residents during a community meeting last week.
” We are waiting for a crane to remove the oil container so that the old transformer can be removed in order to install the new one. Then we’ll begin with the process to synchronise it to the grid so that we can supply electricity. I’ll give an update to the councillors on a daily basis so that they can inform you about our progress,” she said.
According to Nkalitshana, the damaged transformer was installed in December last year and it’s still under warranty. It will be taken back to the manufacturer for repairs, which will reportedly take 6 to 8 weeks.
She asked the residents to pay for services and to use electricity sparingly to avoid overloading. She also called for community members to refrain from illegal connections, which will result in further malfunctioning and damage to the newly installed transformer.
” We’ll use one transformer until the old one is fixed. We’ll have another setback if this one also gets destroyed, because we won’t have any more money to buy another transformer. I cannot afford for the people of Emalahleni to live without electricity. Our municipality is always open to your committee members. We must always engage in dialogue whenever there are differences,” said Nkalitshana.
She also condemned the deaths that occured during the protests, furthermore assuring the families who lost loved ones that the municipality is willing to assist them in opening a case against the police members who are allegedly responsible.
