Life in Radiokop was disrupted by yet another power outage on 3 March.
Danie Human who lives in the Roodepoort Northsider area called to complain about the frequency of the outages.
“This is the second outage that has happened within a two-week period and we are upset about the fact that we don’t receive any warning of when the outages will occur,” he said.
Esme Lombard, a staff member at Life Wilgeheuwel Hospital pointed out that the hospital had to run on generators for two days.
“This is totally unacceptable as we have patients to look after and we are unable to function at a 100 percent capacity without a steady source of power.”
Radiokop was not the only area affected by outages over the past week.
Residents from Ward 98 and Ward 126 also complained about unscheduled outages.
Ward 126 councillor Mike Tonkin said that residents in certain parts of Weltevreden Park have been without power for three weeks.
“City of Johannesburg dropped off a generator in the area which ran continuously for three weeks. Residents called to complain and asked if they had to pay for the diesel. Region C director, Mlamleli Belot told me that he was unaware of the power outage issues and that he would report it to City Power,” said Tonkin.
Ward 98 councillor Laurette van Zijl said the outages in her area took place because of the ageing medium voltage cables which supply power to the area. She said outages result from worn insulation.
“Cable theft is also on the increase as the transformers at substations are being vandalised and the copper stolen,” Van Zijl added.
No comment was received from City Power at the time of going to print.
