Download PDFElectricity, or lack of electricity has been a big issue from long time ago for the community of Rethabiseng in Bronkhorspruit (in Tshwane).
Transformers continuously get burnt because they can’t handle the capacity of people who stay here which gets bigger and bigger each year. The municipality has previously hired a contractor to install electricity. But since then when it’s raining or windy or even in cold weather the electricity trips off unannounced.
Service delivery often takes time before it reaches the informal settlement in Rethabiseng (in Ext 6, known as Mavakga). Even now the informal settlement is excluded from the electricity installation project. This has resulted in some of the community connecting illegal wires so that they can have power to cook. They are tired of fireworks and paraffin stoves.
Others see all these illegal connections as the jackpot to make money. When the contractors are busy in a section, sometimes these people come and steal cables or they open and strip the transformers empty.
Will people of Rethabiseng have electricity? Will the contractors finish what they started? Or will the community have to stay with this small capacity of electricity that doesn’t accommodate everyone? These are questions the community keeps asking.
Despite the fact that the transformers are stripped open with no cables the contractors continue to install in other sections. The community does not understand why since it won’t be able to work without transformers.
This article was submitted on 9 June 2022. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
