The Inkatha Freedom Party in the eThekwini Municipality today calls on the Electricity Department in the municipality to urgently upgrade energy controlling transformers that are causing problems at Inanda in the north of Durban. This comes after complaints from the community that as from Monday the electricity has been switching off in the evening because the main transformer is not able to take the capacity in the area
“At this time, the community is protesting and destroying other public infrastructure. We as the IFP call on the municipality to at least have a meeting with the Inanda Community and explain the issue that is affecting their area, that the transformer is unable to take the high demand load in the evenings and that this is resulting in the power disruptions. The protest caused by this unexpected load shedding is now affecting the businesses community and the day-to-day lives of people because the protesters are destroying the roads. Road closures commenced on the 25th of May 2017 from Ohlange to Dube Village Mall. We understand the frustration of no lights but we also urge people not to destroy property and close off the roads because the lights will come back on and they will need to use the roads and other facilities,” said IFP Cllr Thembinkosi Biyela.
“With more houses being electrified, the capacity of the transformers needs to be upgraded. With winter setting in, more electricity is needed. The power outage stated to be more critical on Monday and has continued until today and this has even resulted in food being wasted due to this unannounced load shedding. On this note, we call on the eThekwini Municipality to urgently intervene and increase the capacity of the transformer so it will be able to handle the demand from the community of Inanda. We cannot allow the people to go through such situation without an explanation from the municipality,” concluded Cllr Biyela.
Issued by:
IFP Councilor
Mr Thembinkosi Biyela
076 309 1992
