RESIDENTS and business owners on Seaton Road in Park Hill can’t plan for loadshedding because their power goes off at random times for prolonged periods of time.
Business owner, Ronel Jonkers who relies on electricity to run her beauty salon, said she was without power for six hours on Wednesday, 5 February.
“With my business, I can’t even work and I can’t schedule appointments around load shedding because the power outages are so irregular and there’s no consistency,” she said.
Resident, Shirley Sangster, said: “It’s just unbelievable. We just don’t know where we stand, People say we should go by the grid, but it doesn’t help.”
Also read:Water restored to Glenhills after 30 hour repair
Julia Knowler, another resident in the area, said she was left without power for a collective eight hours from 4pm on Tuesday, 4 February until 3pm the next day as lengthy power outages occurred throughout the day and night.
“The power was out from 4pm until 6pm on Tuesday, from 4am until 6am on Wednesday and again from 8am until 10am and then 1pm until 3pm on Wednesday,” she said.
What’s more, the power outages did not coincide with the loadshedding schedule for Seaton Road.
“Seaton Road is located in the middle of area 18, but, through a community Whatsapp group, I found out that our power is actually going off according to schedule 16,” said Knowler.
Also read: Briardene residents want rubbish skip installed
While she tried to gain clarity from the electricity department, Knowler found it impossible to get through on the customer care telephone line.
“There’s an automated menu with options to select different numbers, but I couldn’t actually get through to speak to anyone,” she said.
Frustrated, Knowler resorted to sending an email.
“We’d love a response from them. The map and schedule looks very organised with the colour coding, but if they are not going to follow it, then it doesn’t help. They should appologise to us and redo the map,” she said.
Spokesperson for the eThekwini Municipality, Msawakhe Mayisela said the prolonged outage on Wednesday was caused by a fault.
“There was a circuit fault that had to be isolated for repairs. Electricity supply for the area had to be temporarily switched to a different schedule. The area will be supplied under the correct schedule once the fault has been fixed,” he said.
You can also sign up for news alerts on Telegram. Send us a Telegram message (not an SMS) with your name and surname (ONLY) to 060 532 5532. 
Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple.
