WATCH: City’s alleged neglect leads to major loss

The owner of Century Plaza Supermarket in New Redruth has reportedly suffered at least R100 000 worth of losses following a spark that wreaked havoc.

This is after a small fire erupted from the unit’s plugs, reportedly due to an electrical surge that led to the fire leaving many distressed.

Appliances such as televisions, microwaves, fridges and lights were damaged during the occurrence.

Ekurhuleni fire services and paramedics were called out. No injuries were reported. Also, present on the scene were CPS and Fox Security.

Tenants told the Alberton RECORD they had logged numerous calls to the City of Ekurhuleni before the incident occurred.

Residents claim their calls and requests fell on deaf ears despite having initially informed the city of their faulty plugs.

According to residents, the power surge had been occurring for more than a week and some of their appliances had not been working properly.

Costly damage

Owner of Century Plaza Supermarket, Ullah Momin, said he suffered major losses following the incident.

“My employee phoned me 10 days ago stating that electricity was giving them problems. They said it was tripping and they had a power surge. My worker said they weren’t going to be able to resolve the problem because the issue was from the municipality and not the landlord,” he said.

Momin reiterated that the small fire and power surge damaged his items such as his commercial fridges and burnt a portion of his store, leaving him with thousands worth of losses.

According to Ward 106 Clr Tim Denny, a Fox Security member helped put out the fire.

“Emergency services were quick, but only after CPS Security got hold of them and Fox Security both arrived at the same time. This should have been a priority and it wasn’t, consequently, it burnt. In the flat, plugs were damaged and they can’t plug in any electrical appliances,” he said.

Denny said he was only informed of the power surge four days before the blaze broke out.

“I immediately escalated this to the department and notified them with a reference number. For three days I had been continuously sending this as a councillor needs to, I even phoned once or twice. In my view, they have prioritised other electrical challenges in the whole of Alberton. I understand they are understaffed, I understand they don’t have a huge budget but the question is what the priority is,” he explained.

He reiterated that electrical surging is a risk to life and this needed to be prioritised.

“But surely when it comes to high-risk surging electrical issues like this, this should be put at the top of their priority and not the bottom. Luckily, the fire was small and caused minimal damage, but the electrical damage within the plugs throughout the complex is huge,” Denny said.

Speaking on behalf of the management, Richard Blignaut of City and Suburbs Realty, told the Alberton RECORD they did all they could to try and escalate the issue.

“When it started to spread we engaged with two separate electricians, the one said it was floating neutral and the other confirmed it. We immediately advised the municipality of it. We kept phoning and we even went to the municipality. Plugs were sparking, fridges were blowing, televisions were surging,” he said.

According to Blignaut this could have been avoided from happening. He said they will collaborate with all the tenants and with the help of Denny, escalate the claims process to Council.

Attempts were made by the RECORD to get comment from the CoE. At the time of going to print, no comment was received.