Stand off within local ANC

LEPHALALE - A crisis meeting to try and avert a march by some ANC members planned for Thursday was held late Wednesday afternoon. Northern News spoke to ANC regional leader, Jack Maeko, who at the time confirmed that the outcome of the meeting between the ANC, Eskom, Lephalale municipality and the Medupi Workers Association would determine whether the march would go ahead as planned. Northern News also received information  that the ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema, would address Medupi workers in Marapong after work on Wednesday afternoon and that the town of Lephalale would be closed off at its entrances and exits on Thursday morning around 04h30Maeko confirmed that this would be the case if Eskom did not ‘come to the party’ on Wednesday, but by Wednesday evening there was still no sign of Malema and no telling whether he would make an appearance in Lephalale on Thursday.

According to sources, a last ditch attempt by Limpopo premier, Cassel Muthale, to persuade Maeko to call off the planned protest action saw Maeko and possibly some of his co-organisers behind closed doors till late Wednesday afternoon.By this time there was a low key, but sizeable police presence in Lephalale, ready for whatever the following day might bring.

Maeko is the driving force behind a motion to force Eskom to employ and empower more local people (from Lephalale itself). According to Maeko only 20% of Medupi employees are from the Lephalale area. He questioned Eskom’s commitment to Lephalale’s social economic development.  These accusations prompted Eskom to hold a press conference at its information centre in Lephalale last Friday. Here, Medupi project manager, Roman Crookes (photo right), provided the media with a list of Eskom’s community social involvement projects and statistics related to local employment. 

In terms of local employment, Crookes indicated that 46.4% of the 13 606 employees at Medupi are from the Lephalale Municipal area. Some 74% of the total unskilled and semi-skilled labour force is from Limpopo and only 4% of Medupi’s employees are not South African citizens.
Medupi has also placed contractual requirements on its contractors to train about 3 000 skills development candidates in various trades and professions. The objective, according to Crookes, is to have a large number of skilled people who are employable within the Lephalale Municipal and the surrounding Traditional Authority areas.
Since the beginning of the Medupi project in August 2007, the project has invested R2.3 billion in the infrastructure investment within Lephalale. To date Eskom built 995 houses and bought 321 in the Lephalale area. In addition to this, Eskom has signed contracts to the value of R700 million with business in Lephalale.
In terms of infrastructure Eskom has spent R25 million on the expansion of the capacity of the Paarl sewage plant from four to 10 mega liters. Eskom has provided assistance to the Lephalale Municipality with the maintenance of the sewage treatment works settling ponds at Nelsonskop (Marapong). A R10 million donation was made towards the upgrading of the electricity infrastructure through the supply and installation of the 10 MVA transformers to deal with the short term capacity constraint in the town. Eskom invested R11.5 million for the upgrading of the initial 2.2km of the D1675 road leading to the project site.

Hitachi began building the Sekwati Pre-School in the village of Shongoane, 54 km west of Lephalale.
Eskom donated three wellness clinics and medical equipment to the value of R3.8 million to seven clinics in Ga-Seleka, Fox Odendaal, Marapong, Shongoane, abbortspoort, Steenbokpan as well as the Onverwacht Clinics. Eskom also donated cabins to be used as accommodation for the police in Lephalale as well as accommodation for four nurses at Seleka Clinic.

Eskom is paying the salaries of six teachers – two at each of the following schools: Ellisras High School, Ellisras Primary, and Laerskool Bosveld Primary for 24 months. Ten computers were donated to the local high schools. Alstom is investing R3 million over three years to boost the results of 1 500 learners from 10 schools and improve the skills of 48 maths and science teachers.

On the question what Eskom will do with the 1 200 houses when the project is finished, Crookes said that the houses will remain the property of Eskom for the use of future projects in the area.

Crookes said that should the march go ahead, a representative would be at the information centre to receive the memorandum from the marchers.