City of Tshwane under pressure to electrify extending Informal settlements

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The City of Tshwane struggles with electrifying extending squatter camps

The City of Tshwane has responded to the story Soshanguve Pulse covered early in the week on the illegal electricity connections at Soshanguve Extension 14 area indicating that the inability to attend to the Extension 14 settlement electricity problems was due to the pressure on electrifying houses in Garankuwa Zone 14 informal settlement.

The Soshanguve Extension 14 settlement bordering Ga-Rankuwa, remains without decent electricity forcing residents to rely on illegal power connections including having to stand the brutality of the illegal electricity connectors.

The City of Tshwane Media Relations Director, Mr Lindela Mashigo, said due to the enormous size of the area, continuous growth, resources, and bulk capacity, the City is electrifying the area in phases and completes electrification of 500 houses per year.

‘‘Despite the challenges, it is worthy to note that, to date, over 4000 houses have been electrified and connected to the grid. The current phase of the project for electrifying 500 houses started in July 2019 and is planned to be completed before the end of the current financial year.

He said the problem in Soshanguve Extension 14 was caused by the appointed contractor implemented the project but had to vacate the site by end of August 2019 when the contract expired.

“The new contract for succeeding SID EE 39 2015/16 was awarded in November 2019 and the new contractor started in January 2020. Due to the Covid-19 national lockdown which started 26 March 2020, the new contractor had to put operations on hold.

“The contractor is finalizing a safety plan to accommodate Covid-19 safety protocols and will be continuing with construction once the safety plan is approved,” Mr Mashigo said.

Ms Mandisa Tema (41) of Soshanguve Extension 14 said she believes the project might have been disrupted by administration setbacks.

Mr Ronald Junior Maile (33) also of Soshanguve Extension -14 said, “We really don’t know what to believe anymore, we might as well be braced to be without electricity for a bit longer”.