Africa-Press – Eswatini. The mix of a frustrating fuel shortage, an electricity blackout at over 2 500 homesteads after a heavy afternoon hailstorm, which wreaked havoc and 13 tragic deaths from different stabbing incidents resulted in a bleak Christmas for Emaswati in 2022.
The Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC), in a statement confirmed that the hailstorm which hit the country mainly in Mbabane on Christmas Day, greatly affected their power supply with about 2 500 customers experiencing outages.
“We have discovered tripped feeders, blown out fuses, broken jumpers, poles, tripped circuit breakers and faulty meters,” reported EEC when unpacking effects of the hailstorm, which also prompted the Deputy Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, to spring into action together with the National Disaster Management Agency.
A number of homesteads reportedly could not enjoy their Christmas goodies which got spoilt as a result of the power outage.
In areas where the storm was said to have been severe, there was no power for close to 48 hours.
“It’s really frustrating that we could not enjoy our Christmas because of the power blackout, especially since we had been looking forward to having fun after being locked up by COVID-19,” said a resident of Mpolonjeni, which was one of the hardest hit.
However, EEC assured that they were working around the clock to restore power within reasonable time.
“In the meantime, we plead with all affected customers to be patient as some of the areas are inaccessible due to wet conditions,” EEC urged.
They asked the public to exercise safety precautions by avoiding contact with any fallen power lines and to report all outages to the 24-hour call centre.
On Boxing Day, Masuku and the NDMA team visited the most affected areas along the Mbabane-Manzini corridor with intent to determine how the situation could be salvaged.
On the other hand, motorists could not manoeuvre around with ease as fuel stations had run out of fuel.
In most of the fuel stations, there was no petrol from Friday. Only diesel was available in abundance and the situation was expected to persist until today as suppliers were still making their way into the kingdom to deliver the essential commodity.
In what has become a common occurrence, motorists travelling for the holidays were forced to line up in long queues to fuel their vehicles after most of the retailers ran out of petrol late last week.
The latest fuel shortage hit the country hours after government had officially announced another fuel price decrease. Some frustrated motorists revealed that the fuel shortage hit the country at the worst time for them as they were looking forward to travelling over the weekend at a lower cost.
Some of the cities and towns that experienced the shortage included Mbabane, Ezulwini, Mankayane and Siteki to name a few.
Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy Communications Officer, Sikelela Khoza, said as of yesterday, there had not been any official report from the retailers pertaining to any challenges that needed government’s intervention.
He, however, added that as a ministry, they took the initiative to engage the suppliers to ascertain the root cause of the shortage.
He said this could have been a result of inefficiencies of some of the suppliers and directed any further questions to individual retailers and suppliers as there had not been any formal report nor cry for help from the suppliers.
“We are aware of the fuel shortage in some parts of the country but nothing has been reported officially to the ministry to this regard. It would be advisable to contact the respective suppliers and retailers for an official comment on the cause of the shortage,” he said.
He, however, assured that the ministry would monitor the situation and advise the nation accordingly.
Apart from the pain of having to spend Christmas without power and fuel, families also had to endure pain on losing their loved ones in tragic stabbing incidents which claimed the lives of 13 people in different parts of the kingdom during the festive weekend.
This was, however, a reduction from the 20 people who died during the same period last year.
In one of the worst case scenarios of violence, a 72-year-old man of Mpelamandla died after being assaulted with stones in the head on Christmas evening.
stabbed
An 18-year-old man of Mahwalala died after being stabbed with a sharp object once in the back of the body.
Also on Christmas Day, a 50-year-old woman of Khalangilile died after being stabbed with a sharp object three times in the chest and left breast while at Khalangilile. The suspect, a 50-year-old man of Khalangilile was arrested and charged and is expected to appear before Manzini Magistrates Court.
Siteki police were also investigating a murder case where on Christmas Eve, at 1430 hours, a 30-year-old man of Ngcina died after being shot on his upper back body while at Luhhwahhweni.
Another 60-year-old man of Makhava died after he was hacked with a sharp object on the head and then set alight.
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