ATTENTION: TO ALL MEDIA HOUSES FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

The Executive Mayor of Emalahleni Local Municipality is concerned about the ongoing violent protest actions has yesterday the 11th of May 2023 over and above the public notices issued, addressed the residents of Kwaguqa Extension to give an update on the progress made to restore electricity after a couple of days of power outage because the main transformer had experienced internal damages and had to be removed from site and transported to the manufacturer for repairs given the fact that it is still under warranty.

 

The Executive Mayor further explained that the contingency plans have been activated in that funds from our own revenue have been secured subject to condonement by council for the replacement transformer to be delivered today the 12th of May 2023. The installation work is expected to commence by Saturday the 13th of May 2023, and of course it will take few days for the work to be completed including testing of the transformer.

 

Meanwhile the Executive Mayor has apologized for the unforeseen power outages, furthermore she has appealed for calm and encouraged the community to protect the delivery of the transformer and technical teams so that the work can be completed as scheduled and power to be restored in the shortest possible time, the community will be informed with realistic time estimates required to complete the installation work once the technical team has mobilized on site.

 

The Executive Mayor has expressed her disappointment about the inaccurate information which has overshadowed the key message of her address namely to give update on the contingency measures taken to resolve the challenges of power outage. The news dominating social media headlines alleging that the Executive Mayor was attacked for being disrespectful when she said open quote of the social media “why do you need electricity because you don’t even have refrigerators” close quote. The Executive Mayor categorically refutes these allegations, “I did not and will never utter such words to the community and to anyone for that matter” to quote her exact words.

 

The fact of the matter is that the lady whose identity has been confirmed, took the loud hailer from the Executive Mayor when the community meeting was about to be adjourned and began to complain about the community accusing it for not paying attention or showing concern to her unfortunate family situation, regrettably, she started speaking about people not having refrigerators and so on.

 

The nature of the meeting venue made it difficult for the audience to see the person who was holding the loud hailer and speaking at the time, they immediately reacted by throwing stones and objects thinking it is the Executive Mayor making such utterances. The lady in question has since apologized for compromising the safety of everybody who was in attendance.

 

Once again, the Executive Mayor commits to give regular updates on progress made to the community and all stakeholders.

 

Issued on behalf of the Emalahleni Local Municipality.

For more enquiries contact Lesley Nhlapho in the

Office of the Executive Mayor

082 332 1032

nhlaphol@emalahleni.gov.za.