Maluti’s electricity power outages, a nightmare!
While Power utility, Eskom, has nationally temporarily suspended load shedding, the people of Maluti, Matatiele continue to experience the wrath of unexplained power outages. The small township situated about 45 km from the Lesotho borders experiences power outages every other day for a period of a minimum of four hours starting from 5 pm- 9 pm.
Small business owners are the hardest hit as their businesses are not generating the expected revenue, instead are accumulating liabilities because their electrical appliances used as assets have burnt out in the process.
A mortuary employee who spoke on anonymity told the Informer that working with the corpse during this debacle is costing them their business” Corpse need to be kept refrigerated because if not, they rot. The electricity issue we find ourselves in is making it difficult because the constant defaulting causes bodies to produce an unpleasant odour. At times, clients complain that the complexion of their relatives is not the same as when they were brought in.”
The most puzzling issue about the electricty is that nearby areas do have electricity.Community member Den Banze”
Seeing other nearby areas within electricity, is what frustrates us even more. We live without electricity for at least four days; we go to bed on empty stomachs. Shops sell us rotten food because they do not want to lose the money they used to buy stock. We have no idea of what is going, we keep insinuating whether it could be the result of those not buying electricity, or maybe those bridging it…
“Even the police station, the clinic are victims of this, we are pleading with the authorities or at least people from the municipality to come and explain this.”
Hair salon owner, Nelson Mangena ” We are running a business at a loss here. At times, when you have just applied a relaxer cream on a client’s head, electricity goes off. The client is forced to come back the following day and that alone inconveniences clients. We are forced to close early because we have to rush home and cook.”
