Residents voice their power-outage concerns
SOPHIATOWN – 'If the customer's appliances have been damaged as a direct result of a power surge on City Power network, City Power has a public liability insurance to which claims can be submitted via the Legal Department,' says City Power representative.
As the whole country is engraved by continuous and, sometimes timeless load shedding, residents of Good Street in Sophiatown have more on their plate than most. They are experiencing continuous power surges in addition to planned load shedding.
Resident Jackie Marshal said, “The technicians knock at my door quite a few times, even at 10pm. As soon as they get the lights on, they go. And not long after that the lights go out again.”
After almost two months of dealing with the same ordeal, the residents sat down in a private meeting on 7 January to discuss the issue with Ward 86 councillor Steve Kotzé.
“I don’t just blame workmanship, I blame management because management should be making sure that quality control is in place,” Kotzé said.
Resident Ester Matamela is unhappy about the circumstances she has to endure.
“We are too scared to buy any new food because we have lost so much already. I run a crèche in the street; people donate food to us, so when the food spoils it is not so easy to just go and replace.
“I’ve been throwing spoiled food out so much, that I don’t have any food left to feed the children. I therefore sustain a consistent financial loss,” she said.
According to Kotzé, residents obtained no compensation from the City.
However, is the City required to compensate?
According to Sol Masolo of City Power, the City reimburses residents who make valid claims.
“The procedure is that the claimants will have to contact City Power Legal Department on 011 490 7546. They will have to complete a claim form and their claim will be registered and a reference number will be issued.
“A technical report is compiled in respect of each claim and submitted to the Legal Department. This report then is submitted to the insurance company. The insurance company will then make a decision on whether to settle the claim or not, based on the merits of the case and the technical report relating to the cause of the power surge,” said Masolo.
Masolo said the outages on Good Street were a result of a fault on a service cable and a fault on a feeder cable which should be resolved by 10 January.
