In terms of the Eskom electrification programme,Tshimbupfe Central should have been electrified in June 2002. Last February, Ward 22 Councillor Mr KD Mauba announced a plan of bringing electricity via solar systems to the settlement, but all these promises were never hounoured.

Residents, who have been chopping trees for energy purposes in the past ten years, now regard themselves as forgotten. According to a resident of the area, Mr Ben Chauke, during the inauguration of a headman at Tshimbupfe-Thondoni in 2002, the former mayor of the Makhado Municipality, Brighton Tlakula, promised residents that their households were about to be electrified in June, but that never happened. He alleges that, on the municipal electrification priority list, their settlement was in the third position, but to their surprise, the electrification programme was taken to Ha-Mudimeli in Ward 35 of the Makhado Municipality.

In the 5-year IDP electrification priority list adopted by the Makhado Municipality on May 27, 2003, Tshimbupfe central was placed at number 12. Over the weekend, members of the local branch of the ANC, mainly from his (ward councilor) village, nominated him as candidate for ward councilor for the next municipal elections.

“We are tired of using candles and primus stoves and we do not want solar systems, but electricity. In Tshimbupfe central, residents said they do not want this ward councillor anymore, but because they still lack political will, they never pitched up to a crucial meeting where they should have voted against Mauba,” said a resident known to Mirror.

When asked to comment on the backlog of water and electricity at Tshimbupfe Central and in the entire ward in particular, Mauba said that, since Mirror published an article about the shortage of water at Tshimbupfe Central, he had been engaged in talks with people from the local Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in Vuwani. “During our last meeting in September with representatives from Water Affairs, they cited poor supply of water in their systems from Tate Vondo Dam as the main cause of the water shortage,” he said.

He said that the municipality has increased additional water tanks at Mavhulani, Tshilindi and Thondoni settlements. He said that a municipal truck is also supplying water to children at schools within his ward. According to Mauba, Tshimbupfe Central is now in position seven on the electrification priority list adopted by his municipality in 2003.