Several households in Clarence Avenue in Sunnyridge suffered losses of appliances due to a high voltage electricity surge on Tuesday and early Wednesday morning.
During the morning of May 19, the GCN received several complaints from residents after electricity voltages around the area spiked up to 372 volts, causing damage to lights and appliances.
Resident Benjamin van Wyk said he lost his appliances to the value of about R80 000, which he said will not be covered by his insurance.
“I have lost my washing machine, TV screens were damaged, three fridges of which two are deep freezers and more. Sunnyridge has had electricity problems for years and it continues,” he said.
“On Wednesday morning, I called my insurance company and they told me they cannot cover such a problem and that it’s in the clauses that I must read again. Our electricity around here goes of almost twice a month,” said van Wyk.
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Another resident Danny Fourie said, “The power voltage should be at 220 volts but this was not the case.
“My front and back lights blew and everything in the house went boom. It is devastating and at the moment I cannot assess the overall cost,” said Fourie.
“My wife is supposed to be working from home. I had to buy fuel to power up a generator, which is only strong enough to power her computer.
“This is the same generator I had before because of electricity issues around the area, but it is small and it can only do so much,” explained Fourie.
Janine Miller, another resident, added that her appliances were also damaged and to ensure her safety, she disconnected everything until the problem was resolved.
“I am supposed to be working from home, but at the moment I can’t. What is frustrating is that when we have electrical problems we never get feedback on what was the problem,” added Miller.
“We report it. It gets fixed but no one tells us why we had power failures in the first place. Right now, I don’t know what is working and what is not,” said Miller.
Miller added that residents received public liability claim forms from the metro through WhatsApp groups.
The CoE website states that payments for successful claims will be made through the normal expenditure payment processing system.
The process is subject to timelines and processes and may take up to 30 days, depending on the authorisations that need to be obtained.
For more information, prospective claimants may contact the insurance section on 011 999 6550 or 011 999 6547.
Contact the newsroom by emailing: Marietta Lombard (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za, or (Journalists) Busi Vilakazi busiv@caxton.co.za , and Lebogang Sekgwama lebogangs@caxton.co.za.
