Germiston residents grapple with power woes without answers

After months of enduring power-related problems, residents of Sirius Street voiced their grievances about the power issue in their area.

These problems include a lack of energy infrastructure improvements, power surges, low voltage, long power outages and failure to replace stolen cables in time.

Debbie Rossouw said residents had reported voltage problems and being shocked since August and September last year.

“Nothing was ever done about it. They told us to report it again, and we have done so on multiple occasions, with zero results.

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“The situation got so bad that some residents could not touch their walls. In one instance, officials from the City of Ekurhuleni working on a water meter were shocked. They refused to finish the job, as they said it was too dangerous.

“Another resident’s son was shocked while in the shower and this left a mark on him.

“This has become a dire situation as multiple homes in our street have been experiencing power problems during the last six months.

“On February 5, we started reporting their power was off. One by one, we lost our power.

“We lodged multiple complaints. The call centre informed us restoration was four to 24 hours, but after 28 hours they switched on the power.

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“No explanation was provided, and we still don’t know what happened. We did, however, notice we were still being shocked.

“Days later, we had load-shedding in the morning. We came back on, and all seemed alright, except for still getting shocked.

They switched us off around 16:00 again for load-shedding. After 18:00, we all started wondering why we were not switched back on, only to find our power was so low that our fridges did not run. The lights did not work or were dim.

“We cannot use some of our appliances. You can’t use a hairdryer. We had to unplug our security system, as the current was so low that our alarm kept going off. This is a big problem for us, especially with the crime in our area. Having no security is a huge concern.

“One of our residents measured the power in his house. It was 74V, a day after it was at 131V, but it can drop to below 100V.

“I have lost business, as I could not provide products in time to ship to my customers. It has also severely impacted my day job as I cannot take part in meetings because of the low voltage.

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“Another resident has to work at another location, as her power was not stable enough. Another lady has an elderly gentleman in her house. Imagine a frail man trying to locate the bathroom at night when the lights are bad. We are all losing our groceries as our fridges cannot stay cold.

“I am not sure how many reports we would have to do, as the numerous reports we have lodged over the last few months still all show as ‘in progress’. The main response shared with us every time is ‘that it is being escalated.

“We do not find the metro’s excuses not constructive, informative or acceptable. We need clear explanations. We need collaboration between the municipality and the community. We deserve answers and we deserve proper feedback and resolutions,” said Rossouw.

Ian Venter said besides losing his food in the fridge, his camera power supply box blew up.

“When I went to the energy department, the lady I found there did not care. She did not even look at our reference numbers.

“People started getting electrocuted after a team from the municipality worked on the substation that feeds us. The inside lights only flicker,” said Venter.

“We cannot cook, bath, and at night we do not sleep with ease because of the crime rate,” said Venter.

He said two weeks ago, people climbed onto his roof to cut his cable.

Gary Copelant said he uses gas to cook and boil water, however, his tenant is affected by the power outage.
“This is the normality people have to subject themselves to,“ said Copelant.

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“Another neighbour was painting the exterior of his house when he got electrocuted. There are multiple instances of people getting electrocuted, be it in the kitchen, outside taps, and by touching their gates,” said Copelant.

Ryno Rheeder said they are not only losing household stock but revenue as their business is also affected.
Rheeder believes the city prioritises Edenvale and Bedfordview as they get their problems sorted out much quicker.

“I have observed it with water and power outages and even when schools are affected.

“I serve as an SGB board member at the Osterkruin Primary. Last year around June we had to get the school switched to solar because they had a power problem that took the municipality almost two months to fix.

“If a school in the other two areas gets affected, their problems are attended to quickly. Burglars often target local schools when all their security is down,” said Rheeder.

The GCN sent a request for comment to the CoE media team on February 9, requesting a comment by February 12 at 10:00.

At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.