The Buffalo City Municipality in the Eastern Cape says the high demand for power supply in East London’s Gompo and Duncan villages is crippling electricity infrastructure.
The two areas have had frequent power outages over several weeks, mostly in the evenings.
The municipality, which was hit by severe floods in recent weeks, also attributed the power outages to rampant illegal electricity connections.
In an effort to compel the municipality to provide immediate solutions to the power outages, residents in affected areas have embarked on protests, barricading roads with burning tyres.
Municipal spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya says while plans are afoot to address the matter, local businesses are delaying the process by being uncooperative.
“One of the solutions for this is for us to put in another (electricity) line so that we can cope and that is the process the municipality is taking. Unfortunately, that process has been disrupted by Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises who have put (forward) some demands. We are trying to talk to them to solve this impasse,” he says.
He added: “We want people in this area to be able to get electricity. We also call upon the community to be patient.”
