Community members of Dinwiddie showed love to their elderly neighbour Martie Bouwer (70), who had no electricity from October 25.

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William Pretorius, a close neighbour to Martie, stepped in to help the pensioner report her power problems.

Since they live on the same street, William and their neighbours provided Martie with warm water to take a bath at least twice a day.

According to William, he offered to put Martie’s food in his deep freezer by Wednesday because her meat had already defrosted.

“Her power went off at 10:00 on Tuesday. We have been calling the Germiston customer care centre since then and only received reference numbers.

“On Tuesday evening, the technicians came and left without trying to fix the issue,” said Pretorius.

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“My wife and I had to charge her phone. Her house is the only one without power.

“She has blood clots in her legs which means she cannot move around a lot. She is vulnerable to crime,” said Pretorius, adding that she might trip and fall at night because there are no lights.

“Criminals can easily steal her garden equipment or even break into her house.

“The City of Ekurhuleni does not care about their customers at all. The other day I called the call centre and the phone was hung up on me,” said Pretorius.

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GCN sent a request for comment to the City of Ekurhuleni on October 28, requesting comment by October 31.

At the time of going to print, no comment had been received. Pretorius said the power had still not been restored.