RUSTENBURG HERALD - SWARTRUGGENS - Neighbouring town Swartruggens is plagued by never-ending electricity outages after three overhead posts supporting overhead cables have collapsed on 15 March this year.
But power outages or lack of electricity is not the only problem that residents of the small little town managed by the Kgetlengrivier Local Municipality has to deal with. According to well-known resident of Swartruggens - Johan van der Westhuizen - unnecessary pride and indifference of municipal employees and senior officials also has to be dealt with.
Van der Westhuizen told Waldie Volschenk of Rustenburg Herald that on realising that three electricity posts have collapsed on 15 March, he personally contacted Kgetlengrivier Local Municipality's Acting Technical Director - one Mr Rantho - to offer the municipality three 10 metre tar posts at no cost at all, to have the electricity problem addressed and repaired. He at the same time, suggested to Mr Rantho that the three broken posts could perhaps be used as stays to support the new posts given by Van der Westhuizen.
To his surprise however, his suggestion and offer of the free posts were met with indifference and ungratefulness and insults. "Rantho wasted little time to tell me that I shouldn't dare to tell him how to do his job since he knew what he was doing," Van der Westhuizen said. He was also told that he could keep his posts (tar poles) and that Rantho didn't need them, which was obviously far from the truth.
Van der Westhuizen says that since the incident, the matter was also taken up with the Municipal Manager as well as the Executive Mayor, but to no avail, since none of the gentleman took the trouble to return his calls.
It is a shame and very unfortunate that some officials in the Kgelentrivier Local Municipality are so hell bent on forcing their status and apparent power down the throat of people who are only interested in helping and that the community as a whole ultimately has to suffer from the consequences.
Since the incident on 15 March the Kgetlengrivier Municipality has rarely attempted nor succeeded in restoring the town's electricity woes. Several elderly residents in Swartruggens are suffering from poor health and are in desperate need of electricity - some of these people are in need of oxygen which became unavailable due to the outages.
There is however no intervention by the municipality. Several businesses in town also have to bear the constant power outages - such as a well-known funeral undertaker as well as the Swartruggens Police, Van der Westhuizen pointed out.
