MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The Mossel Bay Advertiser received a complaint from a Dube Street, Asla Park resident that in her street and in others in Asla Park, residents are without electricity.
The resident said people illegally tapping into the electricity supply and not paying for the service, were causing interruptions in electricity supply for the legal residents who were paying for their electricity.
She complained that the problem had been ongoing for three years and that the municipality said it had no money to remedy it.
'Aware of problems'
Mossel Bay Municipality spokesperson Nickey le Roux responded to the complaint, saying the municipality was aware of the electricity supply problems residents in, among others, Dube Street, Mzola Street, Plaatjie Street and Mbangi Street had been facing for some time and apologised for the inconvenience that the legal consumers often had to endure.
Le Roux said: “The problem of repeated power outages stems from the illegal connections by those in the informal settlement directly adjacent to this area.
“The municipality regularly acts to remove the illegal connections, which are then only reconnected.
“It is life-threatening for standby teams to disconnect power lines or repair damage at night in the area.”
Le Roux said removal of illegal connections had often been met with “violent community backlash”.
She noted that according to regulations, a municipal budget could not fund electricity infrastructure in informal settlements.
'Land was privately owned'
Also, the informal area was established on land that was, until recently, privately owned.
“However, the National Energy Fund serves that purpose. The municipality has applied for funding and the good news is that the required infrastructure in the adjacent informal settlement will soon be installed and ease the pressure on the formal neighbourhoods in Asla Park's network,” Le Roux said.
“Unfortunately, there are no short-term solutions to electricity theft. The municipality has been working on the solution for some time and is establishing a task force to help stop illegal electricity theft and land invasion. Among others, the contracted Red Ants have been deployed in the area.”
Le Roux said: “Mossel Bay Municipality regularly removes illegal connections. According to the logs kept for June 2021, at least 240 operations were launched with, in some instances, up to 20 illegal connections per pole.
“The municipality is asking residents to stop the illegal electricity connections. Illegal connections are often the cause of fatal accidents that could have been prevented.”
Wiring from illegal connections, which has been removed by the municipality.
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