MMC Mnqokoyi brings early Christmas joy with electrification of homes
Published: November 27, 2024<< BACK TO NEWS
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MMC Mnqokoyi brings early Christmas joy with electrification of homes
Thousands of residents from Motherwell who were officially and legally connected to
the electricity grid on Tuesday, 26 November 2024, by the Nelson Mandela Bay
Municipality have expressed joy and relief following the electrification of 120 homes at
Emithini Informal Settlement.
NMBM Mayoral Committee Member for Electricity and Energy, Cllr Ziyanda Mnqokoyi
led the energising of the homes, which symbolised a new dawn for the community and
an end of electricity related protests and fights between the informal settlement
residents and formal housing residents.
An excited beneficiary, Jongiwe Piko said: "It’s a wonderful day for us today, a day we
have been dreaming of for years and it has finally happened. Christmas has definitely
come early and we are grateful that we will have a normal and dignified Christmas like
other families in this Metro. We were fighting with the formal houses across the street
and paying money to have illegal connections but today we are committing that we will
remove the illegal connections and work with the Municipality to protect the
infrastructure they have given us.”
The 120 households form part of about 700 households earmarked for the energising
project in the area. The project is being rolled out in phases.
MMC Mnqokoyi said the Metro was committed to provide safe and legal electrification
to all qualifying residents of NMBM, however due to budget constraints and a shortage
of meters the process is taking longer than anticipated.
"The primary objective of this project is to electrify the informal settlements throughout
the Metro, thus eradicating unsafe illegal connections while providing proper and safe
electrical connection to the informal settlements. This electrification program will also
allow the Electricity & Energy directorate to better manage its electrical infrastructure
from overloading, faults due to illegal connections, and provide the basic constitutional
rights to the residents of the Metro. As part of the electrification program, the
community is educated on the problems, cost and dangers of illegal connections and
the risks in allowing illegal connections to the network.”
"We continue to call on our residents to protect our infrastructure, there are two
transformers allocated in this area and it is also their responsibility to look after that
infrastructure. They must report any suspected criminal activity on those transformers
because when the transformers blow up they suffer the most. We have made a
promise to this community that we will come back to electrify more homes but today
we are happy to have seen the whole community jovial and welcoming of the progress
made so far.”
Ends.
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