AFTER spending over three years without electricity, residents of Swaneville in Krugersdorp had their lights switched on.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi visited the kasi after new transformers were installed on Sunday, 5 November.
He said he came with mixed emotions, and the first part of those emotions was sadness.
“On behalf of the government that I have the honour to lead, I want to unconditionally apologise for subjecting you to this serious life without electricity for too long," he said.
“I want to apologise to our children who have been forced to go to school and prepare for exams using candles as if we are still in the apartheid era."
He further apologised to the elderly who were sick and needed to put their medicine in fridges, but the fridges had no power.
“I want to apologise to the young ones who had to bathe using cold water in winter so they can go to school,” said Panyaza.
He told the community that electricity was not their mandate as the provincial government, but it was in the hands of Eskom, the national government, and the local government.
The is something happening in Gauteng. Hope is in the air. Look how excited people of Kagiso are. As the Premier of Gauteng Panyaza Lesufi led the switch-on for 6 transformers tonight. Fully functional transformers for this community for the first time in 3 years. One of the… pic.twitter.com/RxAl1fHzza
— Toko Masemola (@TokoMasemola) November 5, 2023
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The premier said that when he visited some townships in the province, including Swaneville, everyone complained about electricity and transformers.
“I had to call the Eskom people, the Minister of Public Enterprise Pravin Gordhan and the local mayors and tell them, how do we claim to be leaders if our people are going through such pain,” he said.
Lesufi said even though it is not their directive, they had set aside R1,2 billion to buy all transformers needed in their communities.
He further told the residents that the second emotion stemmed from the promise he made three weeks ago when he told them that they would fix all the transformers.
“Seven transformers that have been dead for three years are going up for the first time,” he said.
The premier pleaded with the residents to protect the transformers.
He said he spoke to President Cyril Ramaphosa and that some undocumented foreigners came to South Africa to steal electrical cables.
“I told him that I don’t need police officers, but I need soldiers to deal with this problem, and President Ramaphosa gave me 850 soldiers.”
He said the soldiers would patrol to ensure the transformers were not tampered with.
