TSHIMBUPFE – The hope of residents of Tshimbupfe Central (Ward 22) for receiving electricity from the Makhado municipality is fading away, which resulted in a plan to bring electricity via solar systems to the village.

The residents, who have had to make do without electricity during the first decade of democracy, will each pay the company Solar Vision R100 as installation fee and then a monthly service fee of R18. In terms of the Eskom electrification programme, Tshimbupfe Central should have already been electrified in June 2002, but this never happened.

Community members said that the installation of the solar systems is a sign that they will not get "proper" electricity until the municipality can supply to all villages without electricity. Speaking to Mirror, villagers said that the solar systems will be stolen in a similar way that the Telkom system has been stolen by thieves.

The people regard themselves as forgotten, and feel that even if they go out and vote in the coming election, it does not mean that anything will change for them. So far, the promises made to them have not been honoured.

"We read in this paper that the executive committee of the Makhado Municipality was at these other regions, like Nzhelele, Elim/Hlanganani and Sinthumule/ Kutama, but they have never come to Vuwani, so how will they know about our problems?"

"We are tired of using candles and primus stoves and we do not want solar systems, but electricity, and we do not want to chop down trees anymore," said residents. In a telephonic interview, Cllr Mauba, the ward councillor for ward 22, denied that the installation of solar systems at Tshimbupfe is a sign that they will never get electricity. "You will remember that this is not the municipality's initiative, but it is of the residents. They told me that, as I am struggling to get their village to be electrified, it would be better for them to initiate an interim project," he said.