Frustrated, at their wits’ end and simply gatvol are just some of the terms used to describe the ongoing power outage issue in the greater area of Roodepoort, especially in Wilgeheuwel, where cable theft seems to be the number one issue.
A Wilgeheuwel resident, Tienie Venter said that he has lived in his house for 34 years and in the last two years the power outages have really become a major issue. “Last week we had only two days of power, the rest of the time it was on and off,” explained Venter. He said that cable theft in the greenbelt area is definitely a big problem. “They dig up the cables and steal 80m to 100m at a time,” said Venter.
According to Venter, on 14 June City Power came to put in new cables and on 16 June it was stolen again. Venter and another Wilgeheuwel resident who wishes to stay anonymous, explained that the cables run from Christiaan de Wet Road to the substation all the way to the greenbelt area. According to this resident only one out of the four cables in this area works properly.
“I have lived in this house for six years and had six years of frustration with City Power,” said the resident.
Another Wilgeheuwel resident, Julien Kruger said that on 19 June the power was off for over 13 hours. “I tweeted City Power, but they don’t reply,” said Kruger. He added that they are now forced to buy generators and not everyone can afford it. Harry Dunn, owner of Dunmar Security said that cable theft is a big problem. “We deal with this problem daily. The municipality loses around R200 million a year just on the cable theft problem,” claimed Dunn.
He added that one of his security officers recently caught a criminal with 80m of cables. He explained however, that only the police has the authority to arrest these criminals. “I am going to hand over a proposal to City Power on how they can solve the problem,” said Dunn.
Stuart Lowe who is on the security portfolio for Honeydew Ridge Estate 3 said that apparently City Power is planning a meeting with the community. “We had about 120 hours without power in the past month,” said Lowe. He added that this included 20 and 30 hour outages.
Spokesperson for City Power, Yumna Sheik said that they are aware of the cable theft problem. She said that City Power has security in place. “We are planning to relocate the power lines and do overhead lines,” concluded Sheik. Police comment regarding the cable theft problem is awaited.
Details: City Power, 086 056 2874.
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