EMALAHLENI – Uthingo Park residents were baying for eMalahleni mayor’s blood as they gathered at the entrance of Uthingo Park on 13 April.
The residents’ grievances are about the unavailability of electricity and water in their area since May last year. The ongoing struggle of electricity and water have prompted the Uthingo residents to want Mpumalanga Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane to intervene.
Last month, 27 March, the Executive Mayor of Emalahleni, Cllr Linah Malatjie, addressed the community about water and power dispositions in place to resolve their deficiency in the area. However, her response left Uthingo residents not satisfied.
Neo Mabetwa, who once reported the issue with the Highveld Chronicle last year, said, “Things are now difficult for us. We have water shortages whilst the country is also affected by the pandemic COVID-19. We are told that we should constantly wash our hands to protect ourselves from being infected but that sound impossible for us because we have no water.”
Mabetwa added that their predicament saw some of the residents resorting to getting solar panels and generators for power and buying water. “People have lost hope, some now depend on their solar panels and generators for power because electricity does not even last for a while after it came back whilst others, not at all. We feel that is a violation of our basic human rights to have access to water and electricity, we buy our water,” Mabetwa said.
Mabetwa claimed that the Executive Mayor did avail herself to the Uthingo community that day. “We are leaderless. If the mayor fails to deliver on her promises, we are no longer going to seek intervention from her. We will go straight to the Premier,” Mabetwa added.
Despite using prepaid electricity, Mabetwa revealed that their frequent power and water cuts are an act of abuse of authority, greed and corruption from George Xaba, CEO of Emalahleni Housing Company that, “claims to own the houses we stay in, although they do not have title deeds of any of the houses. Lease agreements signed by tenants upon occupation of units are clear in terms of rules and regulations that these houses are part of the government social housing development,” Mabetwa concluded.
The Office of the Premier referred our queries regarding the matter to the Department of Cooperatives Governance and Traditional Affairs (GOGTA) which didn’t respond to our questions at the time of going to print.
