Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Rural areas should be load shaded



“Rural areas should not be left out when considering the issue of load shedding because it is where electricity is used most, the issue of people saying people in rural areas should be left out because they are not consuming more electricity is not welcomed and it is not true” said Mr. Rampedi of Eskom. Rampedi was speaking to journalists in Polokwane on Monday during a press conference in regard to load shedding in the city. There are lot of sayings around rural areas because they complain that they are affected by the load shedding while they do not consume more electricity.

“We only use electricity for lighting, radio and television, we use fire to cook and boil water” said one of the resident who wanted to be anonymous at Ga-Makanye. “We are all poor here and we do not have these expensive electric appliances that consume electricity, but we are left in darkness everyday, this is not fare” she continued. According to Mr. Rampedi rural area people uses electricity unnecessarily just because they do not have education on how to properly use it. “Most of them have hot plates which are used to cook, boil water and serve as heaters” he continued.

The executive mayor of Polokwane Municipality Mr. Thabo Makunyane encouraged people to save electricity, so that they can achieve 10% targeted saving so that they can be excluded from this phenomenon. He also encouraged media people to assist on helping the government and Eskom to achieve their mission of saving energy to avoid crises. According to Makunyane polokwane municipality is already saved 7% of electricity since the start of the load shedding and he believe within the coming months they can reach the target of 10%.

Well to really show that they are committed to save energy, a press conference was held without any lights.

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