Betsie du Plooy
Since lockdown started, the Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) started their own load shedding. From day one, Bethal and the townships of Embalenhle and Emzinoni had load shedding, at times for three or four hours per day, and other times for up to seven or eight hours.
They created a so-called schedule, but do not keep to it, and calls to the call centre go unanswered. If they do answer, it’s to give excuses for the electricity problems.
Our own power is the three-phase model. A month ago when GMM started its load shedding, our third phase did not came back on. We have reported it numerous times, even to the political party representatives, with no success. It is still not fixed. I must mention that GMM is one of the municipalities that owe Eskom millions of rands in service debt.
One of the reasons that we get our power from the municipality is that Eskom says we use too much electricity, and they cannot therefore provide more to Bethal and the two townships. Meanwhile, the other towns in the GMM area do not have any problems with their electricity supply. I hope your input can help us fix this issue. Winter is coming and it’s already cold in our area. What will happen if Covid-19 gets to this area?
