MBAHELA – Twenty-eight households in Ward 31 of the Thulamela Municipality will benefit from the electricity partnership deal between the villagers of Mbahela-Khalilale and the Thulamela Municipality.

The beneficiaries have been battling to acquire electricity for a long time and each household contributed R1 000 towards the project. The Thulamela Municipality has set aside R3million for the electrification partnerships with indigent communities who could not get electricity for the past years.

It costs R3 500 to electrify each household and as a result, the Thulamela Municipality contributed R2 500 for each household at Mbahela-Khalilale to realize the villagers’ dreams of acquiring electricity. The official handing over of the project and the presentation of the Internal Environmental Scoping Report by the consultant took place at Mbahela Primary School, near Dzimauli, on Saturday.

Mr Lufuno Mphaphuli, the Managing Director of Mphaphuli Consulting, which will handle the project, told villagers that the digging and installation of the electricity poles will start before the end of this month. He further said his company would hand over the completed project to Eskom at the end of May. Much to the delight of the villagers, Mphaphuli mentioned that the project would also create job opportunities to some unemployed members of the local community.

He continued: “As an empowerment company, we will make sure that those who would be employed to dig holes will earn between R50 and R120 per hole, depending on the depth of the hole. Apart from bringing the much-needed electricity to the community, the project will also assist in fighting against hunger, poverty and unemployment. I am also happy to hand over the Internal Environmental Scoping Report to you, which is a commitment from our company that we will respect the natural resources of this village during the whole course of the project. I know you have been waiting for the electricity for so long and our company will work hard to make sure that we meet our completion deadline for your benefit.”

The local ward councilor, Silas Nevari said there is still much to be done to uplift the standard of life in the remote rural villages like Mbahela-Khalilale. “Service delivery is all about our collective efforts and we believe we are still going to achieve more through hard work. In the past years, we managed to build 220 houses in our ward and we are still going to build 98 more, but we are still faced with the challenge of electrifying all the villages within our ward. We believe other villages will learn from us that it is possible to achieve our dreams through cooperation.”

Representing the villagers, Vho-Murengisazwothe Mamatsharaga thanked the consultant and the Thulamela Municipality for working together with the villagers towards the implementation of the electricity project.

Thrilling Venda traditional dances entertained guests throughout the daylong programme filled with excitement.