High demand puts pressure on Buffalo City’s electricity supply – SABC News

THE Municipality of the City of Buffalo In the Eastern Cape, high demand for electricity supply in the villages of Gompo and Duncan in east London is crippling electricity infrastructure.

Both areas experienced frequent power outages for several weeks, mainly in the evenings.

The municipality, what was hit by severe flooding in recent weeks, also blamed the power outages on widespread illegal electricity connections.

In the effort to forcing the municipality to provide immediate solutions to the power outages, residents of the affected areas embarked on protests, barricading the roads with burning tires.

Municipal spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said although plans are underway to resolve the issue, local businesses are delaying the process due to their lack of cooperation.

“One of the solutions to this problem is to install another (electricity) line so that we can cope and this is the process followed by the municipality. Unfortunately, this process has been disrupted by small, medium and micro businesses who have put forward certain demands. We are trying to talk to them to get out of this impasse,” he says.

He added: “We want people in this area to be able to have electricity. We also call on the community to be patient.