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The provincial traffic department’s office in Makhado is without electricity.

Municipality cuts traffic department’s electricity

Date: 27 November 2015 By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

An interruption of services at the provincial traffic department’s office in Makhado was the result of the Makhado Municipality's decision to cut off the electricity to the building last Wednesday.

The provincial traffic department’s office in town apparently neglected to pay their monthly bill. The spokesperson for the Makhado Municipality, Mr Louis Bobodi, confirmed this week that the municipality had issued a directorate for the power to be cut off. Bobodi did not want to disclose the amount owed to the municipality, saying such information was confidential.

“The amount owed is around R9 000,” one of the workers at the traffic department's office said. According to workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, it is not the first time that the office had failed to pay the electricity bill on time.

Limpopo Mirror visited the offices this Wednesday, some six days later, and found that the officials were busy assisting clients in darkness.

Although the top officials had kept the power cut a secret to the public, some angry workers said that working in the dark offices complicated their work. “How can we be expected to render services efficiently while there’s no electricity?” said a worker. “Most documents need to be accessed and filed in the system electronically, but it seems some officials who are responsible for arranging for the electricity payment just chose to do things their own way.”

A worker at the provincial traffic department’s office in town said that he nearly fought with a client on Tuesday morning. “He wanted me to check the status of his minibus, which operates as a taxi for a particular taxi association,” said a worker. “But I explained to him that there was a power cut and advised him to return either on Monday or Tuesday. He returned on Tuesday. I didn't know what to tell him. So he swore at me and called me a ‘lazy government puppet’ who is wasting his precious time. I know I could lay a criminal charge against that man for swearing at me, but then I also understanding his frustration.”

The spokesperson for the Limpopo department of Transport, Security, Safety and Liason, Ms Kagiso Mootane, confirmed that the electricity had been cut off.

“I spoke with the senior manager in the Vhembe district office of our department and I was informed that they were busy engaging the municipality to see that in future they do not switch off the electricity for us,” she said. “The municipality is aware of the (financial/payment) run of our department and, if they submit their invoices to us after the run, it becomes difficult for payment to be made.”

Mootane further indicated that switching off the electricity for the provincial traffic department’s office in town was not a good thing as it did not promote a healthy relationship between the municipality and the provincial traffic department. “We have our machines stationed within the municipality and we don't think that we can just switch them off in the event of misunderstandings that need to be addressed,” she said.

 
 
 

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Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

 
 

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The provincial traffic department’s office in Makhado is without electricity.

The provincial traffic department’s office in Makhado is without electricity.

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