Germiston residents upset by delayed restoration of cables

Germiston residents are fed up with poor service delivery and what they now describe as “lack of care” from the City of Ekurhuleni

CoE announced in July this year that the entity will no longer pay for stolen and damaged service cables that run from pole boxes to residential houses.

“The owner of the premises or the consumer shall be liable to make good to the council any damage that may occur to the service connection or any part thereof or to any other council apparatus on the premises unless such an owner or consumer can prove negligence on the part of the council,” said CoE spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.

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Since then residents have come forward complaining that although they had paid monies for damaged cables, they are still experiencing delays in cable repairs.

A resident in Joubert Street, Elsburg, has been left without power for almost two months, even though she has taken the responsibility of paying R1 725 for a cable reconnection.

According to Sophia Lutzke, the cable was damaged by the neighbours when they were digging up a tree stump in front of their yard.

“They did not take responsibility because they still had power and my property does not.

“We were affected by their actions and when we spoke to them they did not even show interest in paying for the cable,” said Lutzke.

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She said her property is the only one affected.

“My tenant has a small baby and has been living at the property for less than three months.

“Because of no power they have been staying in the cold and having to drive up and down to go bathe at the houses of family members. This has led to the baby getting sick and hospitalised,” said Lutzke.

“We need hot water, we need to cook and charge our phones. Now we need to make means because of the carelessness of someone else,” said the tenant Fabiola Malherbe.

Lutzke described CoE’s cable replacement process as terrible and unreliable.

“We were told to provide proof that we are not responsible for cable damage and we have done that but we are still not getting any help.

“We were told to pay or sit without power. How is that fair? We are not even responsible for the damage,” asked Lutzke.

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She said she has been going to the office almost every week to enquire about the issue and received no assistance.

Lutzke is not the only one who has been affected by cable replacements.

Primrose resident Sybrand Klopper was also without power when his cable was stolen during a power outage.

“They climbed the wall and pulled down the cable and cut it. Power was off for 15 days. We had to use a generator, which costs money,” said Klopper.

He said he did not object to paying for the cable replacement. However, he did have grievances about the turnaround time for replacements.

“The Germiston depot needs to work on how they deal with customers. After I had paid, I had to go to the depot to request assistance but the treatment received there was not professional,” said Klopper.

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“After paying for your cable that needs replacement you still need to wait for seven to 14 working days for it to be resolved when it’s not even your fault. They need to review the process,” said Klopper.

CoE said property owners affected are liable and must pay.

“The owner or user of the premises is liable. The owner can take legal steps against their neighbours who allegedly caused the damage. This is a third-party civil matter between the owner and the neighbours,” said Dlamini.

He acknowledged there are delays in replacement work.

“Once the fee is paid, proof of payment is returned to Germiston Energy and the instructions for repairs to the service connection will follow. System downtime unfortunately does occur,” said Dlamini.