Power plant creates jobs

The R2-billion Letsatsi Power Plant under construction in Dealesville, which falls under the Tokologo Local Municipality, has created hundreds of jobs for the local people and promises to significantly boost power production in the Free State.

Letsatsi is the biggest solar plant in the country and will use hundreds of solar panels to produce electricity.

The project is a public private partnership between utility company, Letsatsi Projects and the Free State provincial government. It is expected to be completed in May 2014.

The CEO of Letsatsi Project, Jeffery Robile, said the project is the first of its kind in South Africa. Once completed, the power plant will provide much-needed electricity to residents of the Free State and Northern Cape. Plans are afoot to ensure that the plant provides electricity to other provinces in the country.

The project has already created hundreds of jobs in the area.

“We have employed 700 people in total and 400 of them are from Dealesville. It was imperative that we employ people in this town to address the unemployment challenge and also transfer sustainable skills that the local people can be able to use in the future,” said Robile.

Robile said the people employed on the plant went through rigorous training from the company.  The communication manager of Letsatsi Power Plant, Sibulele Lusaseni, said 250 people out of 500 passed the rigorous test to work on the project.

People with construction and electrical skills were invited for interviews and practical tests.

According to Lusaseni, the students were first taken through a skills development programme which involved attending classes on site.

“They will be taught three to four hours a day and be guided by our assessors,” he said.

There are 45 people working permanently on the site doing administration, transport and cleaning work. One of the learners who participated in the project, Nelson Gonyongo, said he has learned a lot from the project.

Gonyono said his involvement in the project allowed him to gain the necessary experience in the construction and the electrical fields and also enabled him to learn how to read and write.