Since moving into Ntelezini village with her family in 2007, KwaBhaca pensioner Nomawethu Mabono has always felt bad about going to her neighbours to recharge her cellphone.
Despite many households in the village having previously been connected to the town’s electricity grid, her home is among hundreds in Ntelezini that were built later.
“It has been a huge inconvenience and pretty embarrassing to have to go to other people’s houses just to recharge a phone,” she said.
But in four months, her home will be among 117 rural homesteads to be connected to the grid for the first time.
A delegation from the Umzimvubu local municipality, led by mayor Zukiswa Ndevu, went to Ntelezini on Monday to break the good news to the beneficiaries and formally introduce the contractor appointed to undertake the job.
Mabono, 60, who lives with her two daughters and six grandchildren, said she and her family had to use candles for lighting and spend R450 of her meagre monthly pension on buying gas for cooking.
To save gas, they often cooked outside over an open fire.
“We use mostly wood and since there is no forest nearby, our only option is to buy it, and it is not cheap. A bundle will cost you about R800.”
On good days, they cook outdoors, but when it rains they make a cooking fire indoors.
As a result, she has been to the doctor on several occasions with chest pains from inhaling smoke.
She said they had been promised electricity many years ago by the municipality, and she was excited to hear they would finally get it this year.
Neighbour and fellow pensioner Phumzile Xhobiso, 60, said it hurt to see their children studying at night by candlelight.
The retired miner spends R800 a fortnight for firewood, and also uses R350 of his disability grant to buy gas twice a month after moving to Ntelezini about seven years ago.
He had to quit mining after losing four fingers of his left hand in an industrial accident.
“It is tough for me and my family because we just cannot buy enough groceries as we have to use some of the money to buy gas and wood.
“The announcement about electricity is great news because we will be able to stockpile food for a change,” Xhobiso said.
Zanele Majiza, a mother of one, could also not contain her excitement.
Despite being employed through the government’s Community Work Programme (CWP), she said the R800 stipend was not enough to cover all her family’s needs, which included buying gas for cooking.
CWP is a community-driven initiative designed to provide an employment safety net for eligible participants by offering them a minimum number of regular days of work each month.
Ndevu said the R3.1m electrification project in Ntelezini had been funded through the integrated national electrification programme grant, and each household would have its own meter number, ensuring individual accountability and accurate billing.
She said the municipality had significantly reduced the electricity backlog in Umzimvubu from 25,500 households to about 3,600 at present.
“Electricity is about more than putting up infrastructure. Schoolchildren will benefit immensely as they will now have their education made easy.
“They will be able to tap into resources like laptops and even access the internet.
“Villagers will have a better life and stop using paraffin stoves and other things that emit dangerous fumes.”
Businessman Bokang Lehlela, whose company Maboka Contractors won the tender for the project, promised that at least five Ntelezini villagers would be employed as labourers, in security and as a community liaison officer.
He also promised to deliver within the stipulated time frames, barring no disruption to the project.
DispatchLIVE
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