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Kheis is an administrative area in the ZF Mgcawu District of Northern Cape in South Africa. ǃKheis is a Khoi name meaning “a place where you live, or a home”. The municipality is named in recognition of the Khoi people who were the first permanent dwellers of the area.

The implementation team

The implementation team was constituted as follows:

Two installation Teams made up of 6 installers from SUBCOSOL and 6 from the Local Community. The mixing and matching of installers were to accommodate local logistics as well as to ensure local job creation. It was also planned to assist with post-installation maintenance by using the local installers.

Two administration Coordinators

These have been selected from the trained !Kheis Community and were deployed into the project. Again, the aspect of local job creation, as well as an understanding of the project dynamics, was used in identifying the contracted employees. This also came in handy with the maintenance plan by utilizing the administration skills of the local !Kheis coordinators to work jointly with the Supervisor of our installation teams.

One installations Supervisor

This was a resource with proven installations- as well as supervisory skills from SUBCOSOL.

One Project Manager

This Manager was meant to deal with planning, drawing strategic documents, performance-based budgeting, crafting implementation plans and executing those plans. SUBCOSOL deployed one as such and worked in direct liaison with SSS, !Kheis Municipality, the Department of Energy and other stakeholders.

The team was issued with work contracts after the working conditions was tabled and negotiated with them.

Performance targets

The following work breakdown had been issued:

  • 200 Units installed-03 February 2018. Work started on the 19th January 2018 in Zuma Valley. The average daily target was a minimum of 17 Units installed. A further 30 units were completed by the 23 January 2018 in Duineveld and Teresa Valley.
  • 89 Units Teresa Valley
  • 29 Units in Deboville

These segments of installations and others additional were finalized by the 03 February 2018 upon which new target areas were released.

The revised list of beneficiaries (compared to an earlier one of 135) changed the targeting of areas as was later released.

Liaison with the !kheis municipality and the department of energy

Contacts and meetings were held with the Municipality and with the DOE Project Managers and DOE Inspectors whenever such needed to take place. To date, more than 4 meetings have been held with Mr.Dolopi, the acting Municipal Manager and other !Kheis Municipal officials. An allocation and sequencing of installations in terms of localities evolved and was constantly updated, resulting in the allocation of work. Preference was always given to the densest areas and interconnected areas. A revised list of beneficiaries was compiled with added beneficiaries in collaboration with the !Kheis Municipality.

Further liaison with the Officer for Community Development has yielded good results of working together in updating the Beneficiary List to the required totals.

The rollout plan

The systems installation and performance target plan was shared with Specialized Solar Systems as the supplier for dispatch batching. Each consignment of installation hardware supplies was first checked at Specialized Solar Systems before it got dispatched to the site storage in !Kheis. This helped with the accuracy of supplies so that no undersupply was encountered as this could delay the rate of installations.

As soon as the consignment of equipment reached the installations sites it got allocated according to the beneficiaries in that location. Then the 2 teams began and rolled out their installations. The administration team from SSS led with the Beneficiary

Acknowledgement wherein each beneficiary acknowledged that he/she had received the supply of the following Solar Home System Hardware:

  • 1 x Solar Panel with Bracket
  • 1 x 12Volt Battery with Battery Enclosure
  • 1 x Control Distribution Unit
  • 6 x Internal Lights with wall switches
  • 2 x External Spotlights with wall switches
  • 1 x Cellphone Charger
  • 1 x Plug Box for additional DC appliances
  • 1 x Solar Lantern

and have had the above successfully installed at the house with the recorded GPS coordinates of the house. The beneficiary then signed the form and was witnessed by the installer.

In this Beneficiary Acknowledgement Form (BAF) the beneficiary pledged to abide by the norms and standards of utilization as explained to them. In terms of this pledge, the beneficiary would report any fault or non-performance of the system to the Installation Agent for attention and repair. This was a good measure to prevent tampering and to prepare the installations for the subsequent Maintenance Programme.

New Beneficiaries

As the process of adding more beneficiaries continued, it was managed jointly with the Municipality of !Kheis. It was envisaged and became clearer that the sum total will eventually reach and possibly exceed the 1000-targeted figure. Indeed, this figure was achieved-notwithstanding the installation and beneficiary allocations discrepancies encountered along the way. Such discrepancies were resolved at the collaboration of the SUBCOSOL SSS Team with the Municipality and other supplementary stakeholders.

Employment of local communities

In line with the Extended Public Works Programme as facilitated by the !Kheis Municipality, the following Numbers of Employees were contracted onto the Installation Project from January until end March/early April 2018:4

Zuma Valley: 9
Teressa Valley: 3
Deboville: 4
Boegoeberg: 5
Wegdraai: 6
TOTAL: 27

Reporting and invoicing

Zuma Valley, Teresa Valley, Duineveld, Deboville      200         05 February 2018        Done

Boegoeberg                                                           196         19 February 2018         Done

Boegoeberg, Wegdraai                                           200        05 March 2018            Completed with variance reports

Opwag, Teressa Valley                                             200        19 March 2018             Completed with beneficiary reallocations

Boegoeberg, Teressa Valley, Wegdraai                     204         31 March 2018            Completed in collaboration with Kheis Municipality

*This Report was extracted from Beneficiary List  Supplied.

Reports were planned to be tabled on the following dates with completed batches:

  • 200 Units-3rd February 2018, Report and Invoice
  • 200 Units-17th February 2018, Report and Invoice
  • 200 Units-03 March 2018, Report and Invoice
  • 200 Units-17th March 2018, Report and Invoice
  • 200 Units-31March 2018, Report and Invoice

The reports and dates of Invoicing varied according to the pace of installations and their completed inspection dates.

Maintenance plan

A maintenance agreement within an agreeable model was devised and facilitated by the Municipality. SSS supported this plan by supplying the following additional equipment:

  • 22 x complete DB Units
  • 10 x 3W Light Bulbs
  • 10 x Light fittings with lamp shades
  • 10 x Light switches
  • 30 x spare fuses Ceramic
  • 30 x spare fuses Glass
  • 1 x 100Wp Solar Panel

Training sessions were conducted and additional DC appliances supplied.

Proof of installations

The installation reports were submitted periodically to the !Kheis Municipality for verification as they are custodians of the recipient list. The Acting Municipal Manager issued a Letter of Confirmation that the 1000 installations of Solar Home Systems were completed, it is included in the document as seen above.