Residents of Louwville, near Barberton in Mpumalanga, have marched to voice their concerns about the closure of the local clinic. This follows Eskom’s action to cut off the electricity supply at the former Kangwane government offices.
The electricity disconnection has also affected learning and teaching at the Louwville Combined School and the Thusong Centre.
It is almost a month since learning and teaching have been disrupted and health services halted in Louwville. The school and the clinic are in the former KaNgwane government offices.
Eskom has cut off its electricity supply after the Public Works Department failed to pay its bill of over R150 000. The community is concerned about the situation.
“Our problem or our concern is electricity, schools are not working the children are not attending schools because there’s no water at the schools. The clinic is not operating, there’s no electricity even all the departments are affected,” says Louwville’s community leader Patrick Mashaba.
The Louwville Combined School Governing Body says the lack of electricity has a serious impact on the education of their children.
SGB member Prudence Magagula says, “It affects us because we use water on a daily basis and now, we don’t have water and our borehole is not working because we are using electricity when we use the borehole. It also affects us in the kitchen, we are not able to cook without water. Even the toilets are not working because it is flushing toilets.”
She adds that the issue has been ongoing for a month and children have not been going to school.
The Public Works Department in Mpumalanga has acknowledged the Eskom debt but says payments have been made already.
“We received the invoice on the 22nd of March, which wasn’t the cut-off date for the government – the end of the financial year was the 20th of March. However, I must confirm that the payment has been made and they are going to receive it within seven working days at the moment, we are negotiating with Eskom that they must switch on the lights today but we are still negotiating with them so we apologies to the community and everybody,” says Public Works spokesperson Bongani Dlamini.
