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At 6am on a Saturday morning, 43-year-old Luvhengo Vhulahani leaves her homestead in Tshakhuma village in Limpopo’s Makhado Municipality. It’s 8am when she returns. She walks slowly, balancing a heavy stack of firewood on her head.
As she approaches the yard, she slows her tempo, exhausted. She is aware of her household is already hungry – particularly the two-year-old baby ready at house.
Vhulahani walks to the again of the home, the place meals are often ready in an open area beneath a tree. Her 74-year-old grandmother has already began a fireplace, with a big pot of water boiling over the flames. However they’re ready on Vhulahani to begin cooking.
Based on Vhulahani, her grandmother struggles to make fires and cook dinner as a result of kneeling has grow to be painful. She additionally fears the smoke from the hearth, which worsens her eyesight.
“I’m already feeling drained. I walked down from the Ha-Botha mountain to fetch further firewood. I don’t wait till we have now none left,” Vhulahani tells Well being-e Information. The mountain lies just a few kilometres north of her homestead.
“After each journey I really feel weak. I wrestle to stroll correctly due to ache in my knees and again,” she provides.
Greater than a decade with out electrical energy
Each three days, Vhulahani walks up the mountain to gather firewood as a result of her family has had no electrical energy since 2014. That very same yr, she obtained an RDP home from the federal government; however electrical energy was by no means put in.
She lives with 5 different members of the family.
70 households in Tshikosi village, Tshakhuma, have been with out electrical energy for years. Many residents instructed Well being-e Information they’re pressured to stroll into mountainous areas recognized to have massive, venomous snakes to gather firewood for cooking.
Ward 28 councillor Mbangiseni Maraga mentioned Makhado Municipality promised final yr that households can be electrified, however no timeline was supplied.
“I’ve no different possibility than risking my life by going up the mountain,” says Vhulahani. “The social grant I obtain each month can not cowl shopping for paraffin or putting in solar energy.”
To stretch their firewood provide, her household eats solely two principal meals a day – one within the morning and one within the night. Generally they eat chilly leftovers within the morning to keep away from lighting one other fireplace.
“Relying on the climate, meals generally goes unhealthy shortly, particularly when it’s scorching, and we have now to throw it away,” she says.
Rain and darkness worsen hardships
Some residents instructed Well being-e Information that when it rains, they’re pressured to purchase ready meals from close by spaza retailers, including to their monetary pressure.
At night time, some households depend on candles, whereas others use small rechargeable lights that should be charged at neighbours’ houses – one other value many wrestle to afford.
Just a few metres from Vhulahani’s house lives 44-year-old Mulalo Godobedzha, a person dwelling with a incapacity. On Well being-e Information’ go to, we discover him sitting exterior of his one-room home, listening to Phalaphala FM on a small Waxiba radio he purchased 5 years in the past.
Godobedzha lives alone. He mentioned his spouse returned to her mother and father’ house two years after they married as a result of she couldn’t deal with the dwelling circumstances.
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“It is rather troublesome for me to stroll up the mountain commonly to fetch firewood,” he says. “I both use the firewood very sparingly, or I carry my meals and stroll two kilometres to cook dinner at my mother and father’ place.”
Godobedzha survives on a incapacity grant and can’t afford to put in solar energy. He ensures his cellphone and a chargeable mild are totally charged.
“Each two days I’ve to stroll to my mother and father’ house to cost my cellphone and the sunshine, in case of emergencies,” he says.
Group requires intervention
Ward 28 committee member Humbulani Victoria Nemutavhani and Thomas Ligaraba, chairperson of the Tshakhuma Group Growth and Service Supply organisation, are interesting to Makhado Municipality to urgently intervene.
“In 2024, households with out electrical energy approached the municipality requesting set up,” says Nemutavhani. “They had been instructed their flip continues to be far down the record.”
“This might go a good distance in enhancing the lives of affected households.” – Well being-e Information
