“Earthlife Africa’s Sibongile Ndlovu regularly visits communities in Gauteng to unpack the just transition.”
Ivory Park (in Midrand, not far from Tembisa) is a high-density residential area that was established in the 1990s to accommodate informal settlers and backyard shack dwellers from the nearby townships of Tembisa and Alexandra. The area is also home to migrants who come to the city looking for work.
In 1997, the City of Johannesburg established stands and began servicing the community, laying out infrastructure for roads, clean water, and sanitation and building RDP houses. In the past few years Ivory Park has had tremendous population growth, with most people are living in extreme poverty. The unemployment rate is high and sometimes the streets are rank with effluent – a result of poorly maintained water and sanitation pipes, in addition to the increased population load.
One of the major challenges facing this community is access to energy. Not only must they deal with the ongoing load shedding, which means even though they buy electricity from Eskom, much of the time, like all other South Africans, they do not have electricity.
“Ivory Park resident and member of Richfield Farming Project Abram Mokgake says that more grassroots education is needed on climate, energy, and all environmental issues.”
In a bid to address some of these issues, community-based organisation Veg Gro Farming Project and local community members invited Earthlife Africa Johannesburg to host a climate change and just transition workshop, during October 2021. Here, participants agreed that renewable energy could be the solution to their electricity problems, since people’s lives are greatly affected… it seems like most of the time they are living in the dark.
Following the workshop, Ivory Park resident and member of Richfield Farming Project Abram Mokgake took what he learnt at the workshop – about solar panels and renewable energy – and shared this information with his family. Since the breadwinners mostly work from home, the Mokgake family decided they had to invest in the solar system.
“Earthlife Africa’s Sibongile Ndlovu went to talk with Ntate Abram about the success and challenges of installing the solar system in his home, to discuss some of the stumbling blocks to ending energy poverty in South Africa.”
Earthlife Africa’s Sibongile Ndlovu went to talk with Ntate Abram about the success and challenges of installing the solar system in his home, to discuss some of the stumbling blocks to ending energy poverty in South Africa.
- What are the energy issues in Ivory Park?
We buy electricity direct from Eskom, a state utility that has failed to supply accessible, affordable, and reliable electricity to the people. If it is not loadshedding – which affects the whole country – then we sit in the dark because of overloaded transformers or due to issues as a result of illegal connections. The informal settlements are growing but the government is not increasing or improving its services to our communities, many of whom are low-income households facing massive unemployment and surviving on informal businesses.
Eskom’s electrical transformers are installed for a certain number of households e.g 1 transformer for 100 houses, however, these transformers end up connecting to more than 200 or more houses. This means that those who have access to electricity are also serving as connections for those who are not and end up charging their own rates and making money. So, now the transformers are always overloaded, and it is the legally connected households who end up paying (R6500) for a new one from Eskom. And, since most people are not working, it takes longer for them to get back their electricity access.
- What do you think could be the solution?
The solution I had for my family was to install solar system in my home, which worked very well for a while. Between December 2021 to February 2022, all our energy issues were resolved and we were not at all affected by Eskom’s loadshedding nor did we suffered from cut-offs from illegal connections. However, our joy was short-lived.
Due to a lack of information, our community mobilised themselves and destroyed our solar system, along with Eskom’s cables. They did this because they could not understand why we had electricity while others were in darkness. This made it clear that government must invest more effort on public education, to create widespread awareness about renewable energy and how communities, families even, can use and benefit from it. Organisations like Earthlife Africa cannot do this alone. We need municipalities, along with provincial and national government also to be involved.
“Ntate Abram says that the more people are educated on these issues, then people will more likely respect what others are doing to improve their situation.”
- How has this issue affected you and your family?
This has had a negative impact on me personally. I feel like I have failed my family because this is our third month without electricity, and they blame me for bringing this huge change into our lives. This has affected my health. For my son, the breadwinner working from home, it has been a huge challenge. He is forced to charge his electronic devices at the neighbours. I also have a daughter who is still at school. She cannot do her schoolwork at home because it is too cold and dark.
Trying to resolve these issues, is costing me both time and money. Not only musts I run around trying to get assistance from Eskom, to come and fix the cables, I also had to go to the police to open a case against the group that destroyed the cables. This all cost me money that I do not have.
I still say that we need more education on climate, energy, and all environmental issues and we must create more awareness about the different solutions available, so that others will do the same and thereby respect what people are doing in our communities to improve their situation.
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