Power cuts make life unbearable for Sowetans

Thousands of residents in different parts of Soweto, including White City, Dube, Pimville and Klipspruit, are demanding access to power following months of power cuts.

Dube residents took to the streets yesterday to vent their frustrations.

Resident David Mkhwanazi said they were tired of the power cuts and that it had cost them a lot of money because they have had to buy food daily so that it doesn’t go off because fridges don’t work.

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“Our kids don’t even go to school anymore because they leave home in the cold to go to a colder place where there is no electricity and, sometimes, even water,” he said.

“This kind of life is unbearable, the electricity costs R50 a day. No wonder people connect illegally because while some of us live off grants, where do we get thousands of rands to buy electricity that’s always off.”

Jabavu resident Bongiwe Nomnga said she was surprised at the claim that illegal electricity connections were rife in the area.

“They said that only 30% of the residents in Soweto had illegally connected their electricity but what about the other 70% who have been complying?”

Nomnga said their local councillor was not doing anything to assist them.

“What is worse is that my aunt’s medication for diabetes has to be stored in a fridge. But when we don’t have electricity we have to go to a relative’s house Power cuts make life unbearable for Sowetans to store the medication and that means taking a taxi from here to their house, which is extra money we don’t have.”

Another resident Khabonina Lithuli said: “We’ve had a three-day-old baby die from this cold when we previously had a power cut. Another child died from burns of a paraffin stove when the mother was cooking.

“They are telling us that the Covid-19 third wave is here but imagine with the cold spells here and living in the dark since April – are we not bound to get infected?” she added.

Eskom senior manager for customer services in Gauteng, Daphne Mokwena, said they were attending to the power cuts in all parts of Soweto and that some of those communities already had their power supply restored.

Mokwena added that the power utility was in a process of converting the power supply to more than 84 000 houses to prepaid meters but would first need to replace over 50 000 meter boxes.