Lichtenburg residents in the dark for weeks on end
Residents in Lichtenburg, North West have been left in the dark for over three weeks with unreliable electricity supply in the area.
This comes after a pylon fell in July and a transformer was vandalised.
The prolonged power cuts have caused the town to be suffering from financial losses, placing lives, livelihoods, and the economic viability of the town at risk.
DA's Leon Basson says following the Mahikeng High Court judgement in 2017, Eskom can suspend the supply of electricity to the town for maintenance purposes only.
"Despite the adverse impact of the ongoing electricity supply suspension in Lichtenburg and the violation of the rights of residents, Eskom dragged its feet in bringing repairs and there is no guarantee that the transformer will be switched on once repaired,” he says.
"It has become apparent that Eskom’s strategy has always been to exploit the vandalised transformer and the continued suspension of bulk electricity supply as a prolonged debt recovery strategy that the Constitutional Court held to be unconstitutional and unlawful."
Basson adds that the party has requested an urgent court hearing on the matter.
"When it became clear that Eskom has no intention to have the alleged repairs done or to do so with the urgency that the Lichtenburg residents deserve, the DA proceeded to finalise court papers and will now see Eskom in court,” he says.
“We have requested the High Court for urgent access, and we hope that the court will accommodate our urgent application, however, the preliminary court date is set for Thursday, 24 August."
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