A cable fault to the building in which her business is housed has cost Glenwood businesswoman, Joyce Morton, who says she and other businesses have lost clients because of poor service delivery.
Morton said she was without power for two days as result of an electrical fault. According to Joyce Morton, when she arrived at work last Wednesday, she had no power, and it was confirmed by two electricians, that the electrical cable to the building was the problem.
“We had no power and no telephone lines, and we couldn’t use our machines,” said the physiotherapist.
“We didn’t have any phone lines, so our clients couldn’t get hold of us. We were losing business, as our clients were trying to phone all day but couldn’t get through,” she said.
The beautician and nail technician who work on the premises also lost business due to the delay by the city in fixing the fault.
“I’ve had to cancel appointments, which really affected us, especially at month end. We will lose clients because they can go elsewhere for the service we provide,” said beautician, Vani Naidoo.
“When we contacted the municipality, we got an automated response saying the municipal staff were being harassed by a group of people, and that there was a backlog of complaints. We waited two days for something to get done,” said receptionist, Melody Tempest who works for Morton.
eThekwini’s head of communications, Tozi Mthethwa, said the municipality was currently experiencing delays in providing services, including water and electricity, to parts of the City as a result of threats and intimidation of municipal staff and contractors by a group of unknown people.
“Contactors and municipal officials have been attacked or prevented from doing their work have reported these incidents to the police. The City will be beefing up security to accompany contractors and municipal officials to resume work this week. This is one of the steps the City will be taking to address the challenges resulting in the interruption of services to residents,” she said.
Mthethwa said services which have been affected include electricity, water supply, housing, roads and stormwater maintenance.
“The City is endeavouring to deal with the situation and restore services to ratepayers as soon as possible. Areas that were affected will be prioritised and security guards will continue to patrol all depots,” she said.
