Residents in a number of streets in Primrose have entered their third day without power.
The power went out on the morning of December 4 and they have been in the dark ever since.
Streets affected include, but are not limited to, Beaconsfield Avenue, Myrtle Road, Pansy Road, Anemone Road, Cosmos Road, Larkspur Road, Lily Road and Edlaw Street.
A number of affected residents contacted the GCN to say that they are receiving no assistance from the municipality.
Susan Le Roux, one of the affected residents, said, “When we contact the municipality they can’t give us a proper answer, they just say ‘we are attending to the problem’.
“We can’t get a proper answer on the turnaround time and at this stage we are furious. This is costing us money as our food has gone off.”
Sharon Hardwich told the GCN that residents have been reporting the issue non-stop to the municipality, but they have received no answers.
“The dark streets are a haven for criminals, not to mention that we have to throw away our meat and perishables, costing some residents hundreds of rand, and we have little to no chance of being reimbursed for losses incurred.
“There are families with small children – who knows how they are coping through this fiasco,” she said.
Danielle de Wet also voiced her concern, especially with regard to the fact that there are residents who are on oxygen and this puts their lives at risk as they need electricity.
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Another problem she raised is that of fish that are dying due to no oxygen and heaters in their tanks.
Johan La Grange told the GCN that his koi fish are starting to die and he has lost all the food in his fridge.
“Everybody in our street has phoned the municipality to get a reference number for the same issue, and every time the phone is answered the report of the outage is greeted with surprise by the call centre agents,” Johan said.
“At the end of the day, municipal services are not rendered for charity – we pay for them.”
Another question on everyone’s lips is why Primrose has load shedding every day, sometimes more than once a day, while other areas allegedly don’t have any load shedding.
Residents feel this is unfair as everyone pays for their municipal services.
They also say the metro does not follow the load-shedding schedule and that when the power is turned back on, it often blows appliances, which is unacceptable.
Ward 36 councillor Wendy Morgan received feedback from the metro’s energy department which stated that the area will be off for approximately another seven hours due to equipment failure at the secondary substation.
The GCN has requested comment from the metro on all the issues raised and is awaiting a response and an indication as to when the power will be restored.
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