ILLEGAL electrical connections by residents in Cato Crest have been blamed as the major cause of consistent outages which have residents in Westridge Park appealing to local authorities to attend to the problem as a matter of urgency.
Irate resident, Duncan Bonella said many resients were being affected by the power outages which occurred over and above normal loadshedding.
“In June alone, we had six outages that ranged from four hours to 24 hours. In May there were seven and April there were four. We had 12 unscheduled outages in 52 days. We now have outages every three days. The cause is illegal connections in Cato Crest that blow the transformers. The whole neighbourhood hears the loud explosion and three seconds later we are in darkness. This has been going on for well over a year and we have had no solution from eThekwini electricity. Many residents have called in to try and find a solution,” said Bonella.
He said he had put together a document with a petition from residents which had been submitted to the municipality. The document noted the outage, and the fact this resulted in damage to equipment and appliances, posed a security risk, led to perishable food spoilage, expenditure for alternative basic power shortages and noted business down-time for those who work from home.
“I gave them until 30 June to respond, but the only response we have had was that they would look into it,” he said.
Another resident and business owner, told Berea Mail that he had requested an urgent meeting with the electricity department. He also called for a rates reduction for the area, and has written to the insurance department in connection with losses of food in fridges and freezers, loss of income and suggested residents be reimbursed for the additional costs of having to resort to buying takeaways.
Theresa Cronje, also an affected resident, said the situation was costing a fortune in repair and labour fees.
“I don’t believe our area is the only one attracting these fees with this issue. Surely security in the affected areas would be cheaper than constant nightly call outs and repairs. It would be nice to be able to actually speak to someone who cares so that we can find out what is being done about it. A technician visited me the other day and advised me to move because there was no solution in sight. How long before other areas are also affected? Do we have to wait for that to happen before our situation is resolved?” she asked.
Another resident, Shaun McCabe, said he had contacted the municipality on many occasions on behalf of a group of residents in Bidston Road, Essex Grove and Wilson Road to get answers.
“While we acknowledge that faults are attended to by the department who attempt to repair as quickly and efficiently as possible, the ongoing nature of these faults is hugely frustrating. Most of the faults, according the call centre information, are caused by illegal connections from Cato Crest which either overload sub-stations in the area or are causing long-term damage to cables,” he said.
McCabe said continuous power outages either compromised alarms systems whose back-up batteries eventually ran flat and/or plunge properties into darkness. He said a subsequent increase in crime in the area had been noted.
“As sound rates- and taxpayers, this situation is most unacceptable and needless to say the residents are hugely affected by these continuous power outages as well as having to experience load-shedding on top this! This situation needs a long term solution,” he said.
It’s a challenge, says eThekwini
eThekwini municipality’s head of communications, Tozi Mthethwa, said the city was aware of the problem “During the period of January and July 2015, the Westridge Park area experienced a number of faults. The circuit has got an Overhead Mains circuit which has got illegal connections. These illegal connections contribute a lot towards the outages at Westridge Park area.”
She said the scourge of illegal electricity connection has been an ongoing challenge in eThekwini Municipality and several initiatives including modifications to the infrastructure have been taken to minimise the impact of illegal connections.
“Our illegal services contractor teams, escorted by the security guards remove illegal connections on a regular basis. Some of the perpetrators of these illegal activities have been arrested however, charges are often dropped due to the lack of tangible evidence and the low fines imposed are not a deterrent,” said Mthethwa.
She said affected service connections have been converted from underground mains to overhead mains, to minimise the interruption of supply to these customers and the overhead, bare copper, low voltage circuits have been replaced with an aerial bundled conductor as a deterrent to tapping onto the exposed copper lines. Short poles have been replaced with longer ones to prevent access to the overhead cables and connections.
“Circuits have been reconfigured to reduce the interruption of supplies and awareness programmes are conducted regularly to educate customers/citizens on safety, reporting of the theft of electricity and the consequences of connecting electricity illegally,” she said.
Report cable theft
Any suspicion of cable theft must be reported to the Electricity’s call centre on 080 13 13 111, sms: 083 700 0819 or email custocare@elec.durban.gov.za; the Cable Theft Hotline on 031 311 9611, the SAPS on 10111 and the Metro Police Emergency Line on 031 361 0000.
