WATCH | Emalahleni mayor attacked for allegedly saying locals don't need power as they don't own fridges

In ongoing service delivery protest action, Emalahleni (formerly Witbank) residents have hurled stones at their mayor for allegedly saying they do not need electricity as they do not own refrigerators. 

Councillor Conny Nkalitshana was updating Kwaguqa residents on progress in restoring electricity when the meeting turned violent due to her alleged statement.

On Friday, the municipality denied she had made such a statement..

“The executive mayor categorically refutes these allegations. 'I did not and will never utter such words to the community and to anyone, for that matter' — to quote her exact words,” said the municipality.

“The fact is, the lady whose identity has been confirmed took the loud hailer from the mayor when the community meeting was about to be adjourned and began to complain about the community, accusing them of not paying attention or showing concern to her unfortunate family situation.

“Regrettably, she started speaking about people not having refrigerators and so on.

“The nature of the meeting venue made it difficult for the audience to see the person who was holding the loud hailer and speaking at the time. They immediately reacted by throwing stones and objects, thinking it was the mayor making such utterances.

“The lady in question has since apologised for compromising the safety of everybody in attendance.”

The power outage concerned occurred due to damage to the main transformer in the area, resulting in it having to be sent to the manufacturer for repairs.

Installation is expected to begin on May 13 and will take several days to be completed.

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