Diepsloot resident Felistas Sagah uses a gas stove to cook after an electricity transformer blew up and caught fire and left residents at the corner of Amukelani and John Malatji streets without electricity for the past 3 months, 21 July 2020. Picture; Nigel Sibanda
More than 50 households of Diepsloot in Ward 10 has been without electricity for the past two weeks after a transformer exploded in the area.
Ward councillor Abraham Mabuke blamed illegal connections for the cause of the explosion. He said action needed to be taken against illegal connectors because this was what made Eskom to delays in restoring power.
“It’s unfortunate, the electricity issue is affecting the whole of Diepsloot.
“The reason for this is our people are bridging electricity and they are buying bogus electricity,” Mabuke said.
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“It is painful because our students need to continue with online learning and appliances need electricity,” he said.
Mabuke pleaded with residents to allow Eskom to do their job without interruptions when an audit needs to be completed.
Electricity transformer that blew up and caught fire, which left residents living at the corner of Amukelani and John Malatji streets without electricity for the past 3 months, 21 July 2020. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
The residents in the ward blame tenants from certain households for the cause of the explosion. They say the overload on the transformer might have been a problem and requested a bigger one which would accommodate more households.
Felistas Sagah, who is a tenant, said she had to bath in cold water to get ready for work and could not remember the last time she had coffee.
“I pay some amount for electricity every month apart from Diepsloot residents left in darkness my rent. Since we’ve had no electricity, we cook with a gas stove or use a generator which is costing us more money,” Sagah said.
“The generator needs to use 10 litres of petrol which lasts for three days and the gas lasts about two weeks costing R230 for 9kg.”
No illegal connections appeared to be present on the day The Citizen visited the area.
Eskom failed to respond to the matter before publishing but The Citizen witnessed the replacing of transformers by Eskom in neighbouring wards.
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