Mthatha to upgrade aging, overloaded electricity network

the king sabata dalindyebo municipal council has approved a r40 million loan to fix mthatha’s troubled electricity network. the city is riddled with exposed electrical cables, something mayor siyakholwa mlamli said was a danger to residents.

he described the network as a ticking time bomb. “the substation that supplies power to the city centre is 68% overloaded and once it reaches 70% it can blow anytime and the whole city would be just ashes,” he warned.

mlamli said the station was more than 40 years old and had never been properly maintained, adding that the findings of a private firm appointed last year to audit the network revealed it would cost r160m to upgrade .

“the findings were shocking .”

exposed wires meant the municipality could lose its licence, but they were working around the clock to fix the problem, he added. he said the electricity problems in mthatha had been a source of frustration for the entire community.

“this problem has been caused by various factors such as aging infrastructure, illegal connections (and) cable theft.”

as a result, the municipality could not maintain its electrical network at an acceptable standard. “there have been so many blackouts because of our small substation, hence we saw the need to upgrade its capacity,” he said.

the plan to upgrade the system follows his vow to fix exposed electrical wiring after two children were injured last year when they came into contact with exposed live electrical wires.

mbalentle mgolozana, 7, and his cousin, philela tshuta, 10, suffered burns at a funfair last year and the parents of the children are suing the ksd municipality for r9m.

the chairperson of the ratepayers’ association of mthatha, graeme alexander, welcomed the upgrade plan, saying it was long overdue.

“we have constant power cuts at both homes and businesses and that is frustrating,” he said.

alexander said many businesses in town had backup generators, but not everyone could afford them. he accused the municipality of not communicating with residents.

“we don’t know what is happening in this town.

“we just pay for services that we don’ t get,” he said.

alexander said whenever they approached the municipality regarding the state of affairs of mthatha they were always told there was a shortage of funds.

“we want the municipality to tell people about the funds president zuma gave to the municipality to upgrade its infrastructure.”

he said residents wanted to see improvements being made because mthatha was in need of a serious upgrade.

“at the moment conditions are not acceptable.”

by sino majangaza, mthatha bureau