Residents of Jimistile in Mqanduli, Eastern Cape, are calling for government intervention to assist people living with diabetes. Patients are struggling due to a lack of electricity, as some diabetes medications require refrigeration.
The lack of electricity poses a serious danger to their health. As a result, residents are forced to travel to nearby electrified localities to store their medicine. They are demanding quick action to solve the areas electricity issues.
According to Jimistile residents, they were provided with solar power for lighting in 2017. They allege that not all households benefited and that some of the batteries are no longer working.
Resident Thembisile Gwazithole says nearby villages were connected to the electricity grid in 2024, while their village was left without power.
“There is a house down the way, where the electrification ended. We don’t have electricity in this locality. This area was left in the dark. We are really struggling,” says Gwazithole.
Elderly resident Nophamethe Bokleni is pleading with government to help them. “We must not lack while we have government. We are surrounded by areas with electricity, it is only ours that doesn’t have electricity and we are pleading with government to help us.”
Diabetes is now South Africa’s leading recorded cause of death, with Statistics SA reporting more than 27-thousand deaths linked to the disease in 2023. https://t.co/y9nOqqlEFo pic.twitter.com/xz94lUxpa4
— SABC News (@SABCNews) August 14, 2026
The greatest health concern for Ntombekhaya Ndlumbini is the people living with diabetes. Some patients leave their medication at the clinic and have to make frequent trips – when it is time to take their insulin injection.
“What makes this more painful is that there are people who are sick. Some put their medication at the clinic and have to frequently go there and some have to travel to their relatives. Some struggle to travel most of the time. There is a man here that has an amputated leg but he stores his insulin injection at Zithulele with his relative,” says Ndlumbini.
Provincial Eskom spokesperson Zama Mpondwana says the area has been earmarked for electrification through the microgrid project, and the project is planned for execution, during the 2027/28 financial year.
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