PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - The fire that swept through the Zawa Zawa informal settlement in Kurland about two weeks ago, gutting almost 20 homes and leaving more than 35 residents displaced, left a large part of the community without electricity for several days.
Frustrations over the situation boiled over and sparked protest action last Tuesday when residents gathered on the N2 near the Crags, burning rubble.
According to Bitou spokesperson Andile Namntu the outage was caused by the fire. Following the protest action, Acting Mayor Sandiso Gcabayi and other officials met with the community and vowed to have the electricity restored as soon as possible. Namntu said while the municipality's electrical department worked hard on restoring power, there was an initial hold-up in acquiring the necessary cables.
During the meeting the municipality also agreed to have the Crags fire station fully operational "in due course". After the fire broke out, it came to light that the fire station no longer operated a night shift.
The Kurland community gathered in the local community hall to voice concerns over a recent power outage.
The next day progress on restoring the power was dealt a blow as rain interfered with work. "Poles were installed and the cables arrived, however, the rain that had been falling throughout the day made it difficult to do the necessary electrical connections," Namntu said.
He explained that it was a "huge risk" and very dangerous to work on electricity during rainy weather.
The electricity was finally restored the following day when weather cleared up.
Bitou municipal workers restoring power to Kurland.
Electricity being restored in Kurland after an outage left residents without power for several days.
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