The Ermelo Business Association as the Chamber of Commerce of Ermelo held discussions with the Msukaligwa Municipality on Wednesday 30th May 2019 due to very serious concerns raised by businesses and residents about the serious state of the town and the decline in delivery of basic services such as electricity and water, which has wreaked havoc on the town residents lately. The meeting was held with the department heads of the relevant municipal sections and the Head of Technical Services in an effort to find answers to the continual breakdowns and electrical outages in Ermelo, as these are ruining residents’ lives and economic well-being of businesses as well as the financial well-being of residents. The unacceptably high number of electrical outages and breakdowns had reached disastrous frequency over the last while and residents are up in arms, angry and frustrated about this. After discussions it was evident that the frequent rotation/ changes of Senior Management at Msukaligwa had led to an immense amount of poor decisions being taken and has caused the administration of the municipality not to function correctly. According to the municipality the electrical and water infrastructure network of the town is old and lack of maintenance over the years is causing major problems. Although the technical team apologized for the inconveniences this is causing, the electrical cables are continually shorting, and despite being repaired are causing the same problems again and again, each time in other places which is what has led to the massive outages over the last week. There is currently no finance available to replace these cables but the Municipal Head of Technical Services did point out that there is a National Treasury Plan related to development funding but that municipalities are supposed to fund their own maintenance. Cable theft has become a major problem and is costing the Msukaligwa Municipality 100s of thousands of Rands each week in trying to replace the cables which have been stolen. The EBA is asking the residents to report any strange or suspicious behavior with the electrical grid as quickly as possible to help capture these cable thieves.

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