Residents march on electricity issues
“It is a known fact electricity during this time of the year is troublesome everywhere, but we have been following our case very closely for two weeks,” said another resident, Xolani Ntshangase.
Germiston residents took to Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality’s electrical security area on June 15, demanding better service delivery.
Residents marched to the depot’s gates, demanding to speak to someone who would give them answers on ongoing power outages.
SAPS members were on the scene but did not deter residents from demanding answers as they stationed themselves outside the depot gates.
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GCN has been inundated with complaints about power outages from residents across the Germiston area.
One resident said they have been without electricity for four weeks because of illegal connections.
“There are people who claim to work at the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) energy department who walk around, organising their next victims to scam. They demand to be paid R1 500 to restore power. Selkirk Street in Germiston South has been experiencing continued power outages and it is all because of illegal connections that have been reported to the municipality numerous times,” he said.
Shunmugam Reddy, another resident desperate for answers, was at the march with property liability forms following an electrical surge damaging his appliances.
“My fridge, earth leakage switch, light bulbs and radio were all damaged,” Reddy said.
Mike Cushway, from Lambton, said his problems started on June 10 when his house’s electricity supply was not restored following load-shedding.
“I was the only one in our street without power after the load-shedding.
“My wife runs her business from home and fuel for the generator is costly. In three days, we spent R1 000 and we have to boil water to bath from the same generator power.
“I have two reference numbers from the custoemr call centre (CCC) already but no one has come to fix the issue and after 48 hours the reference numbers expire,” said Cushway.
“It is a known fact electricity during this time of the year is troublesome everywhere, but we have been following our case very closely for two weeks,” said another resident, Xolani Ntshangase.
“We went to the Germiston CCC and met with the city manager and despite her making a phone call right there to get the problem fixed, we still have not seen any progress two weeks later.
“It has been seven days. We have been to the depot every day with reference numbers in hand, they do nothing,” said a frustrated Ntshangase.
GCN sent a request for comment to CoE on June 15, requesting comment by June 18.
At the time of going to print, no comment was received.
Contact the newsroom by emailing: Marietta Lombard (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za, or (Journalists) Busi Vilakazi busiv@caxton.co.za
