Power outages are nothing new to Germiston residents.
Over the past few weeks, many suburbs in Germiston have once again been plagued with outages, with some lasting for days at a time.
Over the Easter weekend, the metro gave no reason for an outage which lasted for days.
This power outage resulted in an emergency shutdown at the main Germiston sub-station.
After this situation was resolved, many suburbs were plunged into darkness once again on May 2, when power cables were allegedly stolen in Knights Road.
“The biggest problem when dealing with cable theft is that people are still willing to buy the stolen cables, which cost a lot to replace,” said Ward 36 Clr Wendy Morgan at the time of the theft.
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The city’s residents are at their wits’ end, sharing their frustration with the GCN.
“This situation is getting out control. There is not a week that goes by that our power is not off in Mimosa Park and Klippoortje,” said Janet Greyling.
Hilary Mitchley shared her anguish stating, “We are so sick and tired of being without power.
“Most of the outages will last for longer than 24 hours and are happening on a weekly basis due to the incompetence of the metro.
“Sub-stations, cables and infrastructure are not maintained and they therefore break down and we as residents must suffer.
“Being without electricity is not only inconvenient, it is also a safety risk as our homes are more vulnerable as gate motors, alarm systems and electric fencing do not work.”
She further explained that the metro’s call centre was seldom able to offer any help to frustrated residents.
“The metro’s call centre is pathetic. You need to phone at least three times before you actually get through and they can tell you nothing, if you don’t get cut off first,” she said.
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Ester de Lange also shared her sentiments.
“Once again we were without power,” de Lange said.
“This is happening more and more and for longer and longer periods of time.
“When you phone the metro’s call centre, they don’t even bother to answer the phones.
“Traffic lights are not working and street lights are not working. What is working in Ekurhuleni?
“I can understand why people burn down buildings and throw rocks.”
Phumzile Browne said, “I am full of disappointment and betrayal from the city.
“We were without electricity for almost two days and no communication has come through to explain what is happening or even to apologise for this disturbance in our lives.”
The GCN has sent numerous queries to the metro in an attempt to find out the cause behind the continuous outages and what plans the metro has to stop them.
However, at the time of going to press, no comment had been received from the metro.
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