Three months without electricity
While it is inconvenient to be without electricity for a few hours, residents of a part of Oberholzer have now been without electricity for over three months.
According to one of the residents living in the area of the Wonderfontein Stables near Hinterland, Mrs Maritjie Botha, their problems started on 3 February this year. Residents awoke to the sound of thieves digging up the electrical cable on the northern side of the railway tracks.
Although they called the police and tried to get hold of the Merafong City Local Municipality, no one came to assist.
The residents say since then, the municipality has had various excuses about why they could not restore the electricity supply to the area. “At first, they said they did not have that type of cable in stock,” says Botha.
To make matters worse, the cable thieves returned to steal more of the cable, and, despite calls from the residents, authorities failed to do anything about it.
“The last message I got from the municipality was that the electrical department was overwhelmed due to all the mini substations being vandalised, and they cannot give a timeline for when the repairs will be done. They say we must wait. The situation is very difficult because I must look after my children and it is expensive to buy food every day. Solar panels are out of the question because you can only buy them in cash,” Botha lamented.
“The cable will not be replaced, instead a connection line will be built. A supplier will be appointed through supply chain processes not later than end of June 2023,” was the municipality’s only answer.
