Masakaneng resident Nkwana Ramoabe Kgaphola travels daily collecting empty containers which he uses to store water and to make fire for cooking and heating water at his home about 7km from Groblersdal in Limpopo.
Kgaphola, 53, has been a resident of Masakaneng ward 14 since 2005. His section of Masakaneng, a settlement under the Elias Motswaledi local municipality in Sekhukhune district of Limpopo does not have running water or electricity.
Residents depend of firewood, paraffin and gas for fuel. Most of the people who reside in Masakaneng work as casual labourers on the neighbouring citrus farms.
There is no tap water in the area, residents use wheelbarrows to collect water from communal tanks provided by the municipality in some of the streets. According to Kgaphola the tanks do not always have water as it is not filled every month.
“In 2012 we were promised electricity by then Councillor Angie Matemane. The promise was as this is a huge place, the electricity will not be installed at once. It will be installed portion by portion because this place is too big, from the tar road up until here, portion 13. The municipality provided as promised, it started to install in section A and now we still waiting for our section B to be installed. We have been waiting for 10 years. They should have installed the electricity in 2016,” said Kgaphola.
Jeanette Nkosi, 23, has been a resident in Masakaneng since 2016. The unemployed Nkosi uses candles to light her home and makes use of a paraffin stove to prepare meals for a family of eight members.
The family who depend on a R1 840 government child social grant spends R25 for a litre of paraffin which last them only two days.
“In Masakaneng we buy water which costs R50 a drum and we used to buy firewood in the camp that is now closed. I have no other option but to use paraffin which is expensive and not safe. We are living in a one room shack with children who can be easily burned by the paraffin stove,” said Nkosi.
A store owner who wanted to remain anonymous said he is struggling to keep his shop running without electricity. He is using a 48kg gas bottle to operate the fridge which costs R1 800 excluding transport to refill monthly.
He has also installed a solar system to light up the shop but this is not sufficient especially on cloudy days.
“It is very difficult to run a business without electricity especially when you have to sell cold drinks and meat. The gas bottle (48kg) only lasts for a month which means I don’t make profit at all and the solar that can operate the fridge are very expensive,” said the store owner.
Simon Makua of the Elias Motsoaledi local municipality said the municipality has appointed a contractor for the electrification of 395 households in Masakaneng Portion 13. Makua said the technical hand-over will happen before the end of May. He said the municipality has a licensee to provide electricity in Masakaneng, Groblersdal and Rossenekal.
In her state of District address on 13 April executive mayor of Sekhukhune District Municipality Julia Lata Mathebe acknowledged the slow pace of service delivery.
“We want to use this opportunity to acknowledge that the pace of service delivery in our district is not pleasing. The water service and sanitation infrastructure backlog remain stubborn,” said Mathebe.
“Our major function as the district municipality is to provide water and sanitation services, along with emergency services,” she said.
“The services our people elected us to provide, are not favours. But they are entitled to receive them, as part of the basic rights and freedoms afforded to them by our democratic order,” Mathebe said.
Mathebe said in line with the District Development Model which coordinates all spheres of government behind a single vision of planning, budgeting, and implementation, the District Municipality has identified Six Mayoral Strategic Priorities.
These include provision of water and sanitation services in a sustainable manner, local economic development, growth and job creation through agrarian reform, mining, tourism, and repositioning of the Sekhukhune Development Agency; good governance and sound financial management among others. But Masakaneng residents, many who live in zinc shacks and incomplete brick structures are worried about facing another bruising winter without electricity. – news@mukurukuru.co.za
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