Residents of Grobler Park in Roodepoort who were left to bear the brunt of exorbitant electricity bills as a result of illegal electricity connections at the Princess Informal Settlement transit camp‚ can expect some relief.
Member of the Municipal Council for environment and infrastructure Matshidiso Mfiko on Wednesday officially launched the electrification of the informal settlement‚ providing 340 structures with prepaid meters and street lights.
Mfikoe said the R8-million project was for one of the four areas that had been budgeted for in order to eliminate illegal connections in informal settlements.
He said the department had budgeted R200-million in the current financial year to electrify informal settlements.
“We all had electricity before this and it was illegally connected. We are happy that we have the prepaid meters because the illegal connections were dangerous and every time City Power came and removed the connections we had to pay R300 to the illegal connectors for a reconnection‚” said Kholofelo Moabelo.
Although the residents of the transit camp will now enjoy prepaid electricity‚ residents of Grobler Park said their struggle was far from over as the thousands of people living in the Princess settlement would continue to affect their electricity supply.
“We appreciate that they now have prepaid meters because ever since they moved here our bills have been high. This still does not resolve the ongoing illegal connections by the Princess informal settlement‚” said Mandiseli Ntuli.
RDM News Wire.
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