Residents and business owners across Greater Germiston are facing prolonged power disruptions, sparking frustration and discontentment as issues persist despite assurances from the City of Ekurhuleni.
According to city reports, there is purportedly an immediate 72-hour turnaround time to resolve power faults.
However, in reality, residents complain that restoration times often exceed these estimates, leaving them without power for days or even weeks.
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In a previous communication, the CoE spokesperson, Zweli Dlamini, said: “The turnaround time is immediate unless there is equipment that must be bought because we do not have it in storage.”
The difference between promised response times and actual service delivery has left many residents feeling abandoned.
Numerous attempts to report issues through the city’s customer care centers have resulted in frustration, with automated SMS responses incorrectly indicating problem resolution.
In response to ongoing outages, some residents have taken drastic measures to safeguard their local substations, including welding shut doors or installing makeshift barriers.
Recently, residents in Klopper Park went as far as digging up roads in an attempt to connect power illegally, exacerbating tensions in affected neighbourhoods.
Elandsfontein’s Olifants Street residents have been particularly vocal about their plight, enduring more than a week without power following a cable fault.
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Their frustrations boiled over on July 2, when they protested by burning tires in the street.
Marai van der Bank of Elsburg lamented the toll on her daily life.
“I have been without power for days. With two little grandchildren in the house, keeping them warm is impossible.”
She highlighted the financial strain of frequent calls to the customer care center, spending over R300 on airtime alone, only to receive little assistance.
Nicolene Wilken shared a similar tale of hardship, recounting how 23 days without power led to the loss of her fish and spoiled food in her fridge.
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Ward 36 Clr Wendy Morgan acknowledged the widespread impact of power outages, noting specific challenges faced by local businesses and communities due to vandalism and infrastructure overload.
“Cable theft is still a problem; it gets even more challenging when large companies lose thousands of rand every day,” said Morgan.
Morgan urged residents to conserve electricity, attributing many outages to overloading and illegal connections.
Despite these challenges, the City of Ekurhuleni has yet to provide a substantive response to inquiries from concerned residents.
Germiston City News sent its first request for comment to CoE on June 12.
A month later no comment had been received.
Requests for comment sent by GCN remain unanswered as the community grapples with ongoing power reliability issues.
