At first I thought it was load shedding, but on conversing with other home owners they all mentioned that they had power. On inspection of the electricity meters I found a plastic tag on the seal of my meter.
I then checked my account; the amount showing was only due on March 25. I tried to contact the emergency number, but this has changed to date, I don’t know what this number is. However I went through the whole night without electricity and the refrigerator defrosting and all my security devices failed due to being cut off.
The following morning I went down to the council offices to try and find out what the problem was and parked in the car park opposite the council offices and stood in a queue for approximately 30 minutes.
When it was my turn at the cut-off counter, the gentleman explained to me that the wrong unit had been switched off and made a phone call to reconnect.
On my return to my vehicle, garden contractors were cutting grass with weed-eaters in front of vehicles with no guards on machines spraying grass and stones over all the vehicles.
Why do we pay hundreds of thousands of rands for vehicles and some inconsiderate contractor comes along and chips our vehicles?
I returned home and waited and waited and eventually I contacted the council offices and was transferred from person to person and eventually transferred to the accounts department.
They were the only department that could reverse the lockout; eventually at approximately 11:45 the electrical contractor arrived and switched the meter back on.
I mentioned to the four occupants of the vehicle the damage they have caused me and that I would be submitting a claim to the council for spoilt food and the replacement of backup batteries for security systems off, which is a necessary item for my insurance, not to mention my down time off work, cancelling appointments and probably losing work in this day and age as every client is needed.
Dave
