HLANEKI - The Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy, Mrs Suzan Shabangu, officially switched on the electricity at Hlaneki Village in the area of the Greater Giyani Municipality on Thursday.

Community members of Hlaneki will no longer use paraffin, candles and wood fires for cooking. They spent several years without getting electricity; now they are overwhelmed with the prospects of using electricity.

More than 850 houses were electrified and Usizo Engineering employed 126 community members during the course of the project. The project cost R2,6 million.

Shabangu congratulated Usizo engineering, the Greater Giyani Municipality and Eskom with the project. She added that change can only take place when 'we pledge to contribute towards it as a society." Mr Sakhi Dumakude of Usizo Engineering said that they had spent five months on this project and appealed to the people who are still illegally connected to electricity to stop it immediately.

He said they found 45 houses that were connected illegally and those people who were connected illegally delayed their finishing on time.

One of the beneficiaries, Mr Abel Mabasa, who lives in a muddy house, was very happy when the deputy minister visited him during the switch- on. He was given a hotplate and electric iron.