Swift interventions and interactions
by the political leadership of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality with the
people of Walmer Gqeberha Township have brought calm to the area following the
unrest that happened yesterday, the NMB municipality has just announced.
The unrest was primarily caused by
the disconnection of illegal electricity connections by municipal electricity
and energy officials in the shack dwelling areas of Walmer Gqeberha Township.
The secondary issue the residents claimed was the poor communication from the
Municipality in not informing the affected residents about the planned
disconnections.
Led by the Portfolio Chairman
for Electricity and Energy, Councillor Mfunda, the Municipality today
at 8am called an urgent meeting with the community leaders and the senior Electricity
and Energy Directorate officials to find solutions to the impasse.
At the meeting it was agreed by
both parties that the issue of communication by both parties, the community and
the Municipality, had led to the unrest and had to be improved. Based
on the discussions at the meeting, a common understanding between
the Municipality and the community leaders was reached that illegal
connections were wrong and needed to be dealt with.
The meeting also agreed that
awareness campaigns about the dangers and unlawfulness of illegal connections
needed to be intensified so that illegal connections would be prevented,
eliminating the need for disconnections.
Following the meeting, Councillor
Mfunda convened an urgent media briefing to update the members of the
media about the latest developments. During the press briefing, Councillor
Mfunda condemned the illegal electricity connections.
He said: "As government
we condemn the illegal connections as they pose a danger to people,
especially children. They are also inconveniencing the law abiding
citizens who pay for their own electricity. But having said that, we need
to have creative ways of dealing with issues of this nature. We cannot as
government just go and cut communities off, leaving them in the dark. There are
issues of crime and basic human rights that we need to consider here".
He called on communities across the
city to work with the Municipality in dealing with illegal connections, as
they cost the Municipality a lot of money.
"This is costing us millions of
Rands that could have been channelled towards service delivery. This financial
year alone this has cost us more than R90 million. This is one issue
that needs to be agreed on with our communities: that it needs to be
stopped. It is equally our responsibility to speed up service delivery so that
our people can stay in houses with legal electricity connections, because the
majority of them wish to connect legally, but the conditions do not allow them
to do so," said Councillor Mfunda.
He also called on the media to
assist government in disseminating information about government programmes.
"More cooperation and
assistance from the media can assist us in dealing with issues like this and
other service delivery related unrest".
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