‘Where’s Phalatse?’ – Lenasia South struggles without power

Angry and frustrated Lenasia South residents will have to wait much, much longer for electricity to be restored to the area after a switching station was vandalised by criminals.

Lenasia South has been reeling without power since Friday, after a fire gutted the substation plunging the entire area into darkness.

Struggles

Residents on Friday, scurried to buy generators at exorbitant costs to ensure that the food and perishables they bought at month-end do not rot.

From having no hot water to shower, the power outage has also affected people who are working from home with no internet connectivity, including pupils who have to study under candle light for their yearend examinations.

ALSO READ: Lenasia South electricity expected to be restored on Sunday

Vandalism

While City Power has been working around the clock to repair the damage to the scorched substation with a tentative promise to restore electricity on Sunday, criminals have had other ideas.

“Last night during restoration of power around 10pm, one of the breakers (bus section) in the Lenasia substation blew up. Upon investigation, we discovered that the Lenasia Switching Station was badly vandalised which caused the explosion.

“There was only breaker affected in the bus-section. It has been cleaned and will be tested shortly. Once cleaned, restoration will commence while customers fed from Lenasia South Switching Station will remain off until repairs are done there,” City Power said.

However, City Power did not provide an estimated time of restoration of power.

Where the mayor?

Angry residents are up in arms over the power outage and took to social media to vent their frustrations, calling on Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse to take action and urgently address the extended power outage in Lenasia South.

With the wrestling for the mayorship in full swing in the City of Johannesburg, residents believe officials, including current mayor Phalatse, have neglected to address the plaguing issues affecting the Lenasia South community.

“Morning, any sign of da Mayor Mpho Phalatse! There [are] so many vulnerable people and many with health issues who are on Oxygen! What about them? 4th day [with] no power! Not one address by her! Our kids are writing their final exams! This is just ridiculous! And you expect the residents not to protest!!” Tweeted Pray for South Africa.

Not concerned?

Samantha Singh also hit out at Phalatse claiming “she had more important things to do” then worry about Lenasia South residents.

“Mpho Phalatse was rather running a marathon yesterday in Soweto. Just next door to Lenasia South. A true leader would have at least showed up in that community to show support. Instead, she was posing for photos. At least she showed us hers and the Democratic Alliances (DA) true colours,” she tweeted.

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