Power outages are at a stage where Germiston’s elderly are suffering in the darkness.
ALSO READ: Germiston residents voice grievances on constant power outages
In hopes of raising awareness about household power interruptions in Germiston and surrounding areas, a 91-year-old Klopperpark resident has stepped forward.
This comes after his daughter-in-law contacted the Germiston City News on his behalf.
Godfrey Hoff was without power for 17 days.
The pensioner is a Sonnig Street resident and at the time of the power going off, he did not realise that there is a fault to his connection line.
To his surprise, when the load-shedding passed he still remained in the dark.
In August, Hoff was without power for eight days due to an electrical fault.
During this time, Ward 92 Clr Kade Guerreiro held a community meeting to discuss electricity issues affecting Sonnig Street households.
“In August, the City of Ekurhuleni technicians fixed the issue from the pole. It took them less than five minutes and they were done and gone,” said Hoff.
With the recent outage, he called the call centre on a daily basis.
ALSO READ: CoE to meet with Germiston residents about recent power outages
“They said they will follow up on it. I can’t really do much in the dark the whole day. I have a solar lamp which does not give much light,” said Hoff.
“Sometimes I like to work on my computer and I like to read which I was not able to do.”
His daughter-in-law Hester said Klopperpark is not safe as it used to be hence she was worried about his safety.
“Without power, he cannot cook or bath in hot water. He had to use cold water and that is not good for him,” said Hester.
“He pays his bills on time and sometimes he pays more because he does not always get his statements.
“We spoke to two energy department supervisors and they promised to get back to us. They never did. The ward councillor escalated the matter,” she said.
“Lucky for him we have him on a meal delivery list. The invertor can only last for six hours when fully charged,” said Hester.
Hester told GCN that her father-in-law’s power was restored on November 3.
GCN sent a request for comment to the City of Ekurhuleni on October 31, requesting comment by November 3. At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.
