Stolen fuses leave Farrarmere residents in the dark, again

For the third time since December, residents of Mariner Avenue and Keswick and Southy roads in Farrarmere have been left without power in excess of 48 hours.

Thirty-five households were plunged into darkness on January 28, after it was found that fuses housed in a relay box, on the corner of Mariner Avenue and Southy Road, had been stolen.

A similar incident was reported in Linnet and Christein streets on January 27, affecting 10 homes.

A Benoni City Times meeting with Ward 28 Clr Mary Goby on January 30 at the vandalised box soon drew the attention of affected residents, all of whom bemoaned the CoE’s lack of response.

“We were without power from December 11 to 13, then from December 22 to 27 and now again. That is a total of 11 days without power, yet the metro has not been speedy with their response,” said one resident, who wished not to be named.

“We have CCTV footage of what appears to be vagrants loitering around this box, which is not secured, and soon thereafter we were without power.

“We have heard rumours that there is something within the fuse housing case that can be smoked, but there is no knowing whether this is true.”

Residents, many of whom operate small businesses from their homes, say that alternative power sources help to keep their businesses afloat during the day, however, fear of criminality during the night is of grave concern.

“I have received two reports of break-ins thus far, with other residents claiming that they have seen people roaming the affected streets carrying ladders to climb into dark properties,” said Goby.

“It is unacceptable that residents’ safety is being jeopardised due to the metro not responding to complaints nor, supplying us with feedback.

“The city’s infrastructure needs to be better secured to prevent opportunistic criminals from vandalising it. Matters like these have far reaching consequences, affecting the lives and safety of residents.”

A local business owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said their property was broken into as a result of the outage.

“I suspect that they used the opportunity, knowing that the onsite cameras as well as the alarm’s back-up system had been depleted,” they said.

“Operational equipment was stolen and we now have to pay for an onsite security guards to keep employees as well as our clients safe.”

A request for comment has been directed to the CoE spokesperson, Zweli Dlamini, but no response had been received at the time of publication.

Power to the affected streets were restored at 15:00 on January 30, yet no explanation was given as to why the matter was not addressed in line with CoE’s service level agreement (SLA).

ALSO READ: Parts of Benoni without power since December 21

ALSO READ: Cable theft cause of Western Extension outage