Mpame Residents Petition for Electricity
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
24 May 2023
Meeting Summary
In a virtual meeting, the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs received a petition from the residents of the Mpame Village, and surrounding areas, and the Mbashe Local Municipality, in the Eastern Cape.
The petition, sponsored by Al Jama-ah, involved residents wanting electricity and declaring that it was government’s responsibility to see to their constitutional rights which included the provision of electricity. The years without electricity and the lack of response to appeals to the local municipality had led the villagers to lose faith in all three spheres of government. Thousands of residents in Mpame and surrounding villages did not know what it was like to have electricity: they had no power at all despite numerous promises from the local government over the years. The population demographic was Black African 93.8%, Coloured 1.3%, Indian/Asian 0.8%, White 0.7% and other 3.4%.
At the current stage, the only areas that have not been attended to and were on hold were those that were being affected by the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval that was being awaited from the Department of Environmental Affairs to be able to finish with the electrification of the Mpame area. Letters had been written to the Department of Environmental Affairs and follow ups were being made so that the municipality could receive the update on the EIA approval. Once everything was concluded, houses still left with small incomplete portions (in Mpame & Ginyintsimbi) would be considered complete.
Members asked if the solar photovoltaic system was replaced, would it be possible for the households still waiting on permits from the Department of Environmental Affairs to be connected in the interim while they waited for electrification; wanted the Mayor to indicate the timeframes for the completion of this; wanted to know if the 3000 households awaiting electrification and the delays had anything to do with the kilometre requirement, or if it was the EIA’s record of decision that was not arrived at which would allow Eskom to connect those outstanding households; what were the timeframes for the Department of Environmental Affairs to ensure such a record of a decision was actually arrived at. Hence Eskom could proceed with speed to connect those households.
The Deputy President was tasked to do more for villages. Eskom was expected only to be given a permit to electrify certain areas. The Department would release the permits and then Eskom would come in and finish the process. Members were pleased that Eskom was expected only to be given a permit to electrify certain areas, and that all the households were about to be finished. All coastal areas had a great potential for economic development. The municipality had started to provide communities with fishing equipment and wanted to escalate it so that it could partner with the Department of Economic Affairs (Employment and Labour) and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment to provide the communities with bigger equipment.
Meeting report
Mpame Village Petition
Mr G Hendricks (Al Jama-ah) said he had been approached by the villagers of Mpame and asked to present their petition to Parliament.
He said it should be noted that at the time of submitting the petition, the villagers were unable to access electricity for more than 25 years post-apartheid. During the apartheid years, the Mpame and surrounding villages were in total darkness. The solar photovoltaic (PV) installations done in 2014 lasted until 2019, returning the village to total darkness due to the non-replacement of the batteries, which had reached their end-of-life stage.
The villagers then declared that they wanted electricity and that it was government’s responsibility to see to their constitutional human rights. The years without electricity and responsibility to previous appeals to the local municipality have led the villagers to lose faith in all three spheres of government. Early in 2021, they knocked on the doors of Al Jama-Ah to take their request for electricity to Parliament. The necessary protocols with the chiefs in the various villages were followed and the petition was led by Mr Thulani Dhlamini Lenkawu from Mpame Village.
Mr Hendricks said he was happy to see that much progress has been made over the past three years and wished to recount what the villagers expressed in their petition to Parliament.
Thousands of residents in Mpame and surrounding villages do not know what it is to have electricity: they have no power at all. In fact, they never had any electricity supply despite numerous promises from the local government over the years. This town is about 50km south of Mthatha and 22km south-east of Mqanduli.
Mr Hendricks presented some history on this area. Bomvana/Xhora is situated in the Eastern Cape and the District Municipality is Amathole and the local municipality is Mbhashe: It stretches over 7.15 square kilometres. The population demographic is Black African 93.8%, Coloured 1.3%, Indian/Asian 0.8%, White 0.7% and other 3.4%. The languages spoken in the area include Xhosa, English and others. The Mbashe Municipality was constituted in terms of Municipal Structures Act No. 117 of 1998 and it comprises the areas that previously formed Elliotdale, Willowvale, and Dutywa TLGs and TRCs. The municipality is in the North-Eastern area of jurisdiction. The main administrative office of the municipality is situated in Dutywa. For the record, this is also the birthplace of one of our former presidents.
One can see that this Xhora town was not only rich in history, but also in nature. It has a magnificent Fall and a river which runs through three areas. Xhora town, which was viewed as a thriving town, was linked to seven villages; not one of these villages had electricity. These villagers are: Lubanzi; Mhlahlame; Manzibomvu; Nqila; Manzamnyama; Mdikane, and Nqakanqa.
In 2019, the multi-billion Mpame Bridge was built over a river in the village linking many villages; this made life easier for residents to access government services and other institutions. The residents welcomed the building of the bridge; before its construction, it made crossing the river to school and other places very difficult. In addition, crossing it was hazardous and dangerous for everyone. Many children were forced to stay home during the rainy season when the river overflowed or flooded: there were times when a few women, who were unable to cross the river, gave birth on the banks.
In fact, prior to the municipal elections in 2016, officials made promises that electricity would be installed by April 2019. But this too, was a false alarm, and villagers are still - literally and figuratively - in the dark. The outcome of this caused the villagers to lose faith and to hold onto the belief that the word ‘democracy’ meant absolutely nothing, even though many have voted for this government since 1994; so far, they have encountered empty promises. At present, the villagers are frustrated and they have made it very clear that they are not prepared to wait for another 29 years for electricity.
The community is made up of many elderly-, disabled-, Chiefs-, religious people affiliated with religious denominations, unemployed-, employed-, small business owners and those aspiring to start small businesses but all of them are hampered by the absence of electricity.
Mr Hendricks stressed that the people are frustrated; they have lost trust in the government for whom they voted into power. On some occasions, they felt that they resort to mass action to vent frustrations publicly; they wanted to act out on surrounding institutions and infrastructure. Following much persuasion, they agreed to move away from radical action that would only have disadvantaged them.
He urged the Committee to consider the villagers' plea for electricity, for it will radically change their lives by:
It will take a big burden off all the villagers for they will no more need to collect firewood.
It will make life easy for several disabled individuals who have been living under trying circumstances without anyone in Parliament hearing their painful cries. Imagine to what extent they are relieved when they do not have to walk long distances to gather wood.
It will benefit the elderly, who are also in similar circumstances, to easily fend for themselves instead of depending on young children.
It will help many villagers who earn a living through catching and selling fish; besides putting food on the table, some of them will be able to store the fish in small fridges. This would, in turn, give them the chance to engage in a fishing business.
It will assist the villagers in co-op projects to secure storage facilities for their equipment and set up a cold room to store fish.
It will lead to employment opportunities in the area.
It will change the lives of many villagers: (i) establish small businesses; (ii) create employment; and (iii) opening of hair salons, internet cafes, mobile shops and kiosks, etc.
It will transform the schools in the area.
It will contribute towards formulating a thriving villager community consisting of hardworking, independent, and determined individuals.
Electrification of Mpame and Surroundings
Cllr Samkelo Janda, Executive Mayor, said the electrification programme at Mpame is in the plans of Eskom and it was budgeted for in the 2022/23 financial year. The electrification programme was implemented in the previous financial years, and the outstanding portions were completed in the 2022/23 financial year except the houses still awaiting EIA approval.
At the current stage, the only areas that have not been attended to and are on hold are those that are being affected by the Environmental Impact Assessment approval that is being awaited from the Department of Environmental Affairs to be able to finish with the electrification of the Mpame area.
Letters have been written to the Department of Environmental Affairs and follow-ups were being made so that the municipality could receive the update on the EIA approval.
Once everything was concluded, houses that were still left with small incomplete portions (in Mpame & Ginyintsimbi) would be considered complete.
Discussion
The Chairperson asked why the presentation from the Mbashe Local Municipality was not flighted.
The Committee secretary said the presentation was received yesterday. She thought the Mayor was making introductory remarks and someone else from the municipality would give the presentation.
The Chairperson confirmed that the presentation was given to the Committee Members. He was asking so that the Committee did not engage in a debate about presentations. He allowed the Committee to engage with the petition and the response.
Ms G Opperman (DA) noted that in Mr Hendricks’s presentation, he mentioned a solar photovoltaic system that was in place for the interim. If that is replaced, is it possible for the households still waiting on permits from the Department of Environmental Affairs to be connected in the interim while they wait for electrification? She had a question on the status quo on the Eledelle backlog, but the Mayor answered this.
Mr K Ceza (EFF) said it was possible the Committee was seeing what the Afrobarometer reported on regarding the trust deficit of communities and relations between communities and government. From 2016/2017 to 2020/2021, the Afrobarometer’s indications showed that people trusted government at 56% and as time carried on, this trust declined. This could be seen during COVID-19. However, it did mean that people still trusted government to a certain extent and government did not break the people’s trust to deliver services as was noted in Section 152 of the Constitution.
The Mayor indicated that the electricity was electrified to a certain extent. He also cited the challenges of the houses that were not electrified. He wanted to know the timeframes for the completion of those projects. People would not complain to the Committee if everything was fine.
He thought the specific Eskom model of providing electricity needed to be applauded. Eskom was the one producing electricity. On capacity building, it was possible for a municipality to improve and expand service delivery by improving its own ability to do so. This could be done with corporatisation, where a municipality established its own companies to deliver services that would be independent but accountable to the council.
Ms E Spies (DA) was at a loss for words. It was sad that people had lived under these conditions for so long. It was also sad that the situation got to a point where the Committee was approached for people to receive their basic rights. Although the Mayor said activation was done, it still did not make it right. She wanted the Mayor to indicate the timeframes for the completion of this. There needed to be proper communication with the villagers about this. The villages would not have taken this approach if there had been communication to them on the plan, project and implementation, duration and completion. In many cases, this was where the people were being failed because they were not being updated on what progress there was. The entire petition was disheartening.
Mr G Mpumza (ANC) welcomed the petition led by Mr Hendricks on the non-electrification of communities. He noted that the narrative indicated that people had suffered for some time. The non-electrification was a long history of Apartheid colonialism, where people were denied access to services. Unfortunately, this backlog travelled through rural communities in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Limpopo and Mpumalanga. It happened specifically in areas that were turned into Bantustans. This needed to be noted. People were denied services for years. Now that Eskom was on site, services needed to be rendered. As this happened, the Committee wanted to know if the 3 000 households awaiting electrification and the delays had anything to do with the kilometre requirement, or if the EIA’s record of decision was not arrived at, which would allow Eskom to connect those outstanding households. What were the timeframes for the Department of Environmental Affairs to ensure such a record of a decision is actually arrived at, so that Eskom could proceed with speed to connect those households? The history of households not being connected was an injustice and violated the communities’ dignity and rights. This had been the effect of Apartheid discrimination.
Mr Hendricks’ response
Mr Hendricks said progress had been made and the community understood that there were challenges. He had around a dozen meetings with the Mpame Chief and her committee on many tourism-related issues. Because it was a fishing village, electricity was very important. There was a (unsure - 1:06:59)** 100 metres from the ocean, not a kilometre, and they had electricity. He used to stay there, but now stayed in the huts. In the meeting rooms of the Chiefs, there was some solar electricity, but the matters of the villages needed to be liberated as they were sometimes in darkness. It was important to know the economic activities in Mpame village could make it a smart fishing village but electricity was needed. The freezer room for the fisherman was being built more than a kilometre from the ocean. Unfortunately, he quarrelled with people who lived more than a kilometre from the ocean. The issue was clarified and the vicinity he spoke about was more than a kilometre from the ocean, but the Councillor did not give the go-ahead for a pole to be planted for electrification. A fishing vessel was given to the village, which was still on dry land, because there was no point in going into the water and catching fish when there was no place to store it.
Al-Jamah wanted to carry out the wishes of the President. The Deputy President was tasked to do more for villages. Electricity was very important. He was happy that the Committee urged the Mayor and others to speed it up. He would return to Mpame village and set up a place where the community could listen to this meeting. He hoped the Mayor would join once they had this meeting so the officials and community could see that Parliament took the matter seriously. The issues of villages needed to be taken to Parliament. After two years, Parliament now heard the issues, and he did not want the villagers to know the issues were heard but nothing came from it. Nobody needed to be left out. He could return to Mpame and give positive feedback.
Mbashe Local Municipality’s response
Major Janda thanked the Chairperson and the Committee. He started talking about the facility that was being constructed and required electricity. The facility was more than a kilometre from the ocean which was a requirement from the Department of Environmental Affairs. For such facilities, Eskom usually suggested that whilst they were still in the area, it was important to make the application for the facility to be electrified. He would follow up with the community and Ward councillor in the area to check the developments around that facility.
On the timeframes that the Department of Environmental Affairs would take to complete the process, he was briefed that the Department had a meeting in May and the second meeting would be on 02 June 2023. Eskom was expected to be only given a permit to electrify those areas. The Department would release the permits and then Eskom would come in and finish the process. These were the settlements that were there before the enactment of the Act that he spoke on. Eskom would come in once it received that permit from the Department.
On the issue of the solar panels, he indicated that this was an interim measure whilst people waited for the electrification program. The programmes kicked in in those specific areas. The municipality moved to other areas where there was a bit of time for Eskom to come in. There was hope that these households would be electrified within no time. If the Department made an effort to fast-track the process, this would make it easier. The Committee seemed to be worried about the timeframes for the Department to complete the issue of permits; Eskom would kick in immediately after.
He heard that Mr Hendricks wanted to return to the community and share what the Committee did while listening to their petition. The municipality tried its best to interact with those communities; the Ward Councillor interacted with the communities and was from the areas that were being spoken about. He was in touch with the Chief in that area. What caused the return of the petition was the period between 2018 and 2021 when the community applied. At the time, the electrification program had not reached that area. It was already in Ward 19, moving through the wave approach being followed by Eskom. Hence, Eskom reached Mpame because it followed that programme. It could appear that nothing was happening but the programme started rolling out in 2019. All the households were about to be finished.
Mayor Janda agreed with Mr Hendricks that all these coastal areas had great potential for economic development. The municipality started to provide those communities with fishing equipment and wanted to escalate it so that it could partner with the Department of Economic Affairs (Employment and Labour) and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment to provide the communities with bigger equipment. This was being discussed as the municipality developed its Integrated Development Plan (IDP). Some of these institutions had fishing permits. The municipality was in that area and handing out the fishing equipment. These communities could realise the economic opportunities that were there.
The Chairperson thanked the Mayor and assumed that the Committee received clarity on its questions.
CRL Commission Job Profiles
The Committee reviewed the job profiles of the chairperson, deputy chairperson and ordinary commissioner on the CRL Commission. The Committee was meant to adopt those profiles.
Mr Ceza asked if there were vacancies in the CRL Rights Commission.
The Chairperson said he was not sure - he had not heard of any vacancies. It was just something outstanding to be done by Parliament.
Mr J Smalle (DA) said there was a lot of monitoring and evaluation being referred to; he asked if the reporting line was clear in the document.
The Chairperson said it was very clear the entity was reporting to Parliament. He asked for any clarity-seeking questions or possible proposals for adoption.
Mr X Msimango (ANC) moved for the adoption of the job profiles.
Ms P Xaba-Ntshaba (ANC) seconded the adoption of the job profiles.
The meeting was adjourned.
Documents
Present
-
Xasa, Mr FD Chairperson
ANC -
Ceza, Mr K
EFF -
Direko, Ms DR
ANC -
Hendricks, Mr MGE
Al Jama-ah -
Mpumza, Mr GG
ANC -
Msimango, Mr X N
ANC -
Opperman, Ms G
DA -
Smalle, Mr JF
DA -
Spies, Ms ERJ
DA -
Xaba-Ntshaba, Ms PP
ANC
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