Ongoing power cuts a complex issue

ONGOING electricity outages in Glenwood have sparked concerns over broader social issues. Illegal electricity connections, a sprawling informal settlement with no infrastructure, ongoing cable theft and student muggings on dark streets are among residents’ concerns as power outages continue to plague the community.

Chairperson for Mayville Community Policing Forum, Sector 1, Janus Horn, said frequent power cuts have become the norm.
“The Glenwood community monitored outages over a period of 90 days. The power went off 59 times, on average, between 18:00 and 21:00 at night,” said Horn.

A resident who wanted to remain anonymous said the power outages have plagued the community for years.
“Power outages have been ongoing for about ten years. In the last two years, it’s gotten extremely bad. It sometimes goes out five nights a week for two hours or more each night. And what we are so stunned at is that the outage mostly goes off between 18:00–20:00,” said the resident.

The outages have also impacted Horn as a business owner, running Sica’s Guesthouse.
“As a business owner, my diesel cost is nearly R500 an hour. On top of that, there are maintenance costs. This is expensive, but what about my neighbours who are residents? They get home at 17:00 and need to cook dinner. Their children need to study. They don’t have a generator. What do they do?” said Horn.

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Load-shedding returns

On July 25, the eThekwini Municipality announced that rolling blackouts would affect the City from Monday, August 1. With load-shedding on the horizon, Horn and other residents are expecting outages to span beyond the schedule.

“If we have load-shedding from 14:00–16:00, the power doesn’t come back at 16:00 because the supply trips due to all the illegal connections. Power might only come back at 17:00 or 18:00. We may then have another outage between 18:00 and 21:00, which is peak time. The system is not made to be switched on and off – especially when there are illegal connections creating an overload,” he said.

In a statement, Msawakhe Mayisela, spokesperson for the municipality, said the City was spared load-shedding after the widespread damage to the electrical grid during the April and May floods.
“As some substations are still out of commission and many parts of the network require re-configuration, the existing load-shedding schedules had to be amended. eThekwini has prepared a temporary schedule that will be effective for stages 4 and higher. This schedule will be in use until further notice. Certain areas will be excluded from load-shedding because of highly compromised networks,” said Mayisela.

Illegal connections

Horn noted that there are several illegal connections in the area impacting power supply.
“We have an informal settlement next door – there are 50–100 000 people living in Cato Crest. No infrastructure has been put in place to provide electricity and running water to the settlement. There are now illegal connections, which is creating an overload on the system – especially during peak times,” said Horn.

For Horn, illegal connections pose a greater threat than power outages.
“Last year, there were six or seven fires in Cato Crest where 50 to 60 shacks were destroyed. I have been on scene after fires and seen that shacks have illegal connections where something goes wrong, and there are massive fires where people have died. It needs to be addressed,” he said.

He said there are illegal connections along several roads including Mary Thiphe Street, Molver Road, Amandlacrest Way and Jan Smuts Highway.

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Safety for students

Not only do power outages impact residents at home, outages also leave pedestrians at risk on dark streets. Hylton Dettmer of the Manor Gardens Ratepayers Association noted that cable theft has contributed to the issue.
“Part of the cause of cable theft is vegetation that is overgrown. Suspects are accessing the street lights via the vegetation grown around it. Trimming vegetation is an easy intervention. The next thing would be to replace street lights with LED lights to reduce the load,” he said.

With a large student population in the area, Dettmer said street lights are essential to improve security on the roads.
“One aspect we’ve had trouble with for a couple of years is the security of students. Students are getting mugged; it is absolutely linked to street lights. We have to look after the students in the area; this is the next generation. It’s got to be a combined effort between the community and stakeholders,” he said.

“There are over 200 student houses in Manor Gardens. There is a bus service, but students still walk. Last month, we got our crime rate down to the lowest it’s ever been, but 75% of crimes committed was theft of student laptops and cell phones. We had 11 incidents and seven or eight involved students. If the street lights were working, we would not find the muggings taking place,” added Horn.

Residents met with National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) last week to discuss the situation. Berea Mail reached out to NERSA and eThekwini Municipality with several questions, however, they were unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

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