Maluti-a-Phofung's civic movement MAP16's head of communications, Mmutlanyana Sekete, tells OFM News that they tried to restore electricity with urgency, understanding the inconvenience it caused to residents and the industrial areas.

He says when they attempted to fix the problem the first time, they had anticipated that it would resolve the problem for everyone, unaware that there would be another problem causing further delays in electricity restoration.

“Another major damage then happened, with an estimation of about R16 million. Now, the problem was where will such a municipality, which is struggling financially, get that R16 million from. It was only a few areas that were still without power, but the work was still continuing until late last night when all areas had power.”

Sekete further says residents are hopeful that once an agreement between the municipality and Eskom has been signed, to make Eskom the distribution agency in the municipality, electricity problems such as ageing and faulty infrastructure will be resolved.

OFM News previously reported that electricity was restored on Sunday 18 September 2022 in most parts of Harrismith, after it was off for two weeks due to faulty infrastructure.

On 12 September 2022, the municipality tried to restore it, but it failed again.

Harrismith businesses were being affected by the power outage, as some could not open due to no electricity and being unable to cover the costs of running generators. Some businesses had to close down and retrench staff as they were losing a lot of money.

OFM News/Mpho Mohapi