Patience wearing thin as electricity crisis continues

Scores of people from Finsbury and surrounding plots in Rand West City gathered at Finsbury Park on Saturday, January 28 to attend a community meeting and air their grievances regarding the ongoing electricity crisis.

This comes as residents have been without power for more than three weeks affecting livelihoods and leading to protest action.
Finsbury and surrounding areas were plunged into darkness following cable theft at one of the substations in the area.

Those who are ill have suffered due to not being able to store some of their medication in refrigerators and residents’ basic day-to-day living have been impacted immensely.

Speaking at the meeting, concerned resident Wiekus de Beer said he is fed up with the municipality to say the least.

Also read: Electricity crisis cripples water supply in parts of town

“We have been without electricity for four weeks and according to a promise from the council, we can expect electricity by February 2. However, it’s a wait and see game. How can we believe the council which hasn’t been able to keep a promise to date,” said de Beer.

Also read: Greenfields Estate residents protest over electricity

Another resident and business owner shared the same sentiments and said that he has lost all hope in the municipality.

“We have been without electricity for the longest time and it is beyond frustrating. Even load-shedding is better than what we are being subjected to. We have also lost so much as a community, and I doubt that many of us can recover from this. Our livelihoods are affected; we’ve lost so much food and a lot of people’s businesses have been badly hit due to the lack of power,” said Vilakazi who added that she cannot believe that this is what their lives have become.

Finsbury, Kocksoord, Ten Acres, Middelvlei and Peace Haven are some of the areas affected.

Meanwhile, the Rand West City Local Municipality (RWCLM) provided an update on the progress of the electricity crisis and said that work is being done to restore the essential service.

RWCLM spokesperson Phillip Montshiwa confirmed that a contractor has been appointed.

“Progress is being made. Tshepang Electrical was appointed on January 13 to urgently assist the municipality to restore electricity supply after an explosion in Finsbury. To date, a lot of work has been done including clearing the site to plant new poles, as well as surveying and pegging of the new overhead line route. Wayleave application to Eskom and Transnet has also been submitted. As it stands, the Tshepang electrical team already planted 43 of the 12 metre wooden poles [out of the required 63 poles] and they are busy planting the remaining 20,” Montshiwa said.

The crisis follows a power outage in Finsbury, Ten Acres, Koksoord and Brandvlei due to cable theft. The Lafarge transformer and Finsbury substation burned as a result of the theft.