TAUNG
The Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality has failed to ensure people of Taung (Ward 22) have reliable electricity; this is despite three companies having been appointed to do the job.
According to residents, all the three contractors appointed by the municipality have abandoned the project, without energizing their homes.
Since the failed Operation Mabone initiative in 2016, which was earmarked to electrify several villages in Tubatse, including Taung, there has been two contractors appointed by the FTLM.
Sekhukhune Times has learnt that in 2022, a contractor was appointed and tasked with completing the Operation Mabone project at Taung, but the fully paid contract was abandoned.
As communities continued to complain about the unfinished electricity project, in 2025 the FTLM appointed yet another company to wrap up the electricity project, it also seems to have hit a brick wall, still today, people of Taung don’t have reliable electricity.
None of the three companies has managed to complete the project, instead millions of rands have vanished.
Realizing the hardships of leaving without power, locals in Taung resorted to illegal connections.
Speaking to the Sekhukhune Times, residents alleged corruption and lack of accountability from the local municipality are the reasons behind the failed project.
“The leaders only want to enrich themselves, they don’t care about the communities, there is no supervision and no one cares. Millions are gone but the electricity project is still incomplete.”
Once again, this publication inquired with the municipal communications manager Mahlako Komane about the situation at Taung, she was yet to respond to question posed to her at the time of going to print.
The Operation Mabone initiative was earmarked to electrify 35 communities in Tubatse. Only 26 were successfully connected before it was halted due to court battles. About 14 000 households were affected by the project failures.