4 September 2008
The Theewaterskloof municipality has rejected residents' allegations that it made false claims about public information on a new powerline to run between the historic villages of Greyton and Genadendal.
The residents say they learnt of the controversial project only when Eskom started delivering the 23m high pylons last week, despite the municipality's claim that "key stakeholders" had been involved in the approval process that was finalised in November 2006.
But their version has been rejected by the municipality, which insists that due process was followed as Eskom was mandated, in terms of the Environment Conservation Act, to carry out its own impact assessment.
"Information regarding the proposed powerline and sub-station would therefore have been distributed by Eskom or their appointed environmental practitioner," said municipal spokesperson Stiffie Cronje.
He said the municipality had registered as an "Interested and Affected Party", just as any resident could have done. Cronje also said the project had to be viewed in the light of regular and repeated power failures, and low quality of supply experienced by the residents of the two villages.
"Most people were willing to accept the impact that such a structure would have in order to improve the supply of electricity."
However, the municipality had acted as the "voice" of the community by referring the application to the Aesthetics Committee of Genadendal and Greyton - the "correct thing" to do, he added.
"During the EIA (environmental impact assessment) process a site visit was arranged at which members of this committee, together with officials of the municipality and the environmental practitioner who was managing the process on behalf of Eskom, were present.
"Certain details regarding the position of the substation were amended, but no comments or objections were voiced or received regarding the position or the appearance of the pylons," Cronje said.
The municipality was satisfied that due process had been followed by Eskom and it had "no reason to fault the process (and) the allegation that it is 'lying' regarding this issue is rejected".
Eskom spokesperson Fani Zulu has still not responded to a request for comment.
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