Zenzele still in the dark after decades

ZENZELE – About 640 households in Zenzele in Moutse outside Groblersdal within the Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality are still without electricity more than 21 years after settling in the area.

According to residents, the owners of a portion of the land where Zenzele settlement is, have set an unreasonable price on the sale of the land where electrification is supposed to be implemented.

Seun Mogotji, a community leader, said the owners of the land have obtained a court order to stop the electrification process of the settlement, leaving residents frustrated without electricity for many years.

Mogotji said the act by the owners stood in the way of development of the area as residents could not benefit from the electrification project of the area.

Mogotji said his party, the Bolsheviks Party of South Africa (BPSA) which is an opposition in the Sekhukhune District Municipality (BPSA) Council, would lodge a complaint on behalf of the residents of Zenzele with the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development regarding the Zenzele matter which adversely impacted on lives of people there for many years.

Mogotji worried that the people of Zenzele not only faced electrification problems but they also lacked water services and heath facilities.

“It is in this regard that we request immediate intervention by the minister to assist the people of Zenzele and Moutse who continuously suffer since their incorporation into Limpopo,” added Mogotji.

Simon Makua, Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality Communication and Public Relations Manager, confirmed that there was electrification project in the area but was stopped by the land owners.

Makua said electricity poles were installed there but the project could not proceed due to issues of ownership of the land.