JB Marks' municipal spokesperson, Jeanette Tshite, says the power outages in the area are scheduled to take place from 06:00 until 18:00 on 16 June 2023. 

Tshite says this will mainly allow the contractor appointed by Eskom to string the Besfort Conductor to cross 88kv lines, one in White North 1 and 2, and the Lichtenburg Munic 88kv feeder for the new lines.  The power supply shutdown will affect Ventersdorp town, including Moosapark, Toevlug, Tshing, Extensions, Boikhutsho, Appeldraai, and all farming areas.

Minister of Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, recently stated that there is no timeline for reducing load-shedding, even though interventions by the government will lead to an overall improvement. Ramokgopha revealed that some of the interventions that the government has come up with are importing power from neighbouring countries such as Mozambique.

“Mozambique can offer us 100 MW, our technical team Eskom and EDM are meeting to finalise the details. In the next six months we can get an additional 600 MW and going into the future there are multiple sources of over 1 000 MW. So we are very grateful to Mozambique who are beginning to make the kind of strides that we had promised the South African people,” he said.

Meanwhile, the JB Marks Municipality has been struggling to deliver services to its people, with a high employment rate also forming part of the problems that the municipality is facing. 

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In a recent media briefing, Mayor, Gaba Thithiba Ka Qhele, said the municipality has decided against external service providers and will be hiring local people with skills, especially when the municipality starts with the reprogramming of electricity meters so that people are correctly billed.

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