Villagers from the Paballong area, Free State, are helping the local municipality of Maluti-a-Phofung to restore electricity after a nine-day power outage. Photo: Tladi Moloi
On Saturday, after nine days without electricity, power was finally restored to an eastern part of the Free State. This was due to about a hundred residents helping the local municipality of Maluti-a-Phofung to erect electricity pylons that had fallen during strong winds.
Residents of Monotsha, Makgalaneng, Tseki, Paballong, Mabolela and Mahankeng have been without power since Friday, October 25, after the main line poles collapsed in Paballong village.
Villagers, mainly men, put their shoulders to the wheel last Wednesday and worked all Thursday in the blazing sun and well into the night until it was too dark to work.
Women from the villages brought them juice and bread donated by immigrant spa shop owners in the affected areas.
The area where the piles came down is steep and rocky and not accessible to the municipal crane. So the villagers, along with officials, raised the poles with brute force. On the first day they raised the poles, but they came down again because they were too long and unstable. The sticks were then shortened.
Lefu Mofokeng, one of the men who helped, said: “It was not an easy job, but we had to sweat because we needed electricity.”
“I spent all day in the sun and we didn’t have time to go home and eat. So the women in the community went out and asked for food from the local shops and gave them bread and juice. “I wish we could work like this every time we have a problem,” he said.
Municipality spokesperson Thabo Kessah said: “We appreciate the efforts of residents to ease the burden of service delivery. Government alone cannot do this and it needs all of us to step up and work together. This also translates into purchasing electricity and paying for services so that the quality of service can improve.”
Women from the villages brought juice and bread donated by immigrant spa shop owners in the affected areas.
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By Tladi Moloi
groundup.org.za
