Tshwane resident relieved electricity is back after three weeks in the dark

Finally, there was light at the Ntimbani family’s house after the power was switched off three weeks ago.

Sam Ntimbani from Nellmapius in Mamelodi said he was happy the power was restored.

He said when the City of Tshwane workers arrived at his house on Sunday evening, they called him out for escalating the matter. “The man came here to ask why we ran to the media and I told them I had no other options,” said Ntimbani.

“He showed me a message from his boss that wanted to know why I don’t stand in the street and pull over a City of Tshwane bakkie if it drives past to ask for help.”

Ntimbani said Monday was the first time he wore an ironed shirt in three weeks.

“My wife is so grateful she has already ironed.”

He said if the city’s workers were there to switch off his power, why didn’t they inform him or produced a warning letter.

Power outage

Ntimbani phoned the city’s call centre and received three reference numbers and no warning letters. He was told there was a problem with the circuit breaker and a cable was the reason for the power outage.

After Ntimbani’s power was switched on, the city accused him of being behind on his payment.

ALSO READ: City of Tshwane ignores pleas from mom with no power for three weeks

Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said Ntimbani’s power was disconnected in July and not in November. “There is no reconnection that was authorised since July.

“He was reconnected illegally if he had electricity. This is the response I have received from Billy Sepuru, the regional head for Region 6,” Bokaba said.

Jordan Griffiths, policy advisor to the Tshwane mayor, said the teams weren’t sent to fix the problem but to check the status of the disconnection. “If that bill is in arrears and there was a reconnection, then that was illegally done. Unfortunately, we will have to disconnect again.”

He said teams regularly implement disconnections in this area due to nonpayment and frequent illegal connections.

MMC for utilities and regional operations Daryl Johnston said he would look into the matter as the system indicated Ntimbani’s account was unpaid while the resident had a prepaid meter.

Political analyst Piet Croucamp said he shared the frustration of being unable to sort out a municipal-related problem.

“I have been struggling for three years to sort out a problem. It is impossible,” he said.

He said service delivery was the big problem. “It comes down to the people employed to do the work [who] simply don’t have the capacity,” he said.

“The IT system, how many times has it changed and still it doesn’t work efficiently?”