Outrage as municipality removes illegal electricity connections in Walmer Township

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro has defended its decision to remove illegal electricity connections in Walmer Township.

Up to a thousand angry residents protested on Thursday following the disconnection of illegal electricity connections in Walmer Gqebera Areas G and N by employees from the Electricity and Energy Sub-directorate.

Metro spokesperson Kupido Baron said it was their legal responsibility to remove the illegal connections as they were damaging electricity transformers in the area.

"It is not as if we do not provide electricity connections to informal areas, we do especially informal housing areas.We cannot condone the electricity connections to be illegally connected from our system, it creates problems for the infrastructure we have." says Baron

Meanwhile, tensions continued to run high between Villiers and Heugh road in Walmer on Thursday where residents burnt tyres.

Residents claim the municipality promised not to cut the illegal connections and that they were meant to hold a meeting on Friday with the community.

AlgoaFM News spoke to community leader, Mfundo Nduvane who says the people are angry with the lack of service delivery in Walmer Township.

"It's simply because the municipality cut off our electricity. We go and vote but they never come to us and address us.The ANC came to us made promises and did their campaign within the community. We were promised houses, free water and electricity. We took this stand to say enough is enough."