Power outages are nothing new for many Germiston residents.
However, this doesn’t mean the community has to sit by and accept the consistent outages.
The LamDel Residents Association (RA), which was established in 2016 and encompasses Denlee, Delville, Hazeldene, Hazel Park, Klippoortjie North, Lambton, Parkhill Gardens, Webber and the Germiston Lake, covering two wards and two CPFs, believes something needs to be done.
“There are constant power outages within our suburbs that are not a result of load-shedding, but rather a direct result of infrastructure that is failing and has not been looked after,” said Lornette Joseph, chairperson of LamDel RA.
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The organisation recently held a public meeting at Afrikaanse Hoërskool Germiston.
Before the meeting, the organisation handed over a petition to the metro which had been signed by more than 100 residents.
Ward 39 councillor Alta de Beer and a representative from the energy department attended the meeting, while invitations were extended to Ward 35 councillor Oupa Tshabalala and several other councillors and metro representatives.
“We believe it was very important to invite members of the metro and ward councillors to attend the meeting and are grateful to those who attended, but feel that by many of the delegates not coming they only showed the lack of respect that they have for the residents in our area,” said Joseph.
“We fully understand that officials are busy, but when the residents cannot get answers something needs to be done.
“At the very least the officials could have sent a representative on their behalf who could answer the questions raised.
“Will we only be taken seriously when we stop paying?”
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Though the non-attendance of the officials was upsetting, some good did come out of the meeting with community members, not only from the areas that LamDel RA represents, but from across Germiston, as people got the opportunity to air their grievances and concerns and ask questions.
One of the biggest concerns raised was that of the 33kVA cable that was promised to the area which was supposed to alleviate many of the electricity problems.
Work was due to start in June/July 2018 and Joseph queried the progress of this project.
During the meeting, many residents also offered solutions to issues.
Following the meeting, de Beer and the representative from the energy department pledged to take some of the residents’ issues to the relevant departments to get answers.
The GCN requested comment from de Beer following the meeting, but at the time of going to press no comment had been received.
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