Water was finally restored on 13 December at the Norwood Police Barracks after a long three weeks wait but electricity still remains a challenge.
Norwood police commander, Colonel Anna Jojisa, in an exclusive interview with the North Eastern Tribune, confirmed the reinstatement of water supply at the A-Block residential flats.
She, however, said the issue of electricity still continue to be problematic as it had, by that time of the interview, not yet available because of a circuit breaker that had been apparently stolen by an unknown person.
Jojisa said contractors from the Gauteng Department of Public Works, who are the custodians of that 10-storey building, had restored water back.
She said they tried to fix electricity, unfortunately, it exploded because the circuit breaker that they used was not the correct size.
“They do now have water, however, the contractors installed a wrong one and it exploded. We hope that they will be able to fix it soon and enable residents’ power supply,” said Jojisa adding that they installed a 500v breaker rather than an 800v thus exploded.
There was no water and electricity for about three weeks at the barracks and on 8 December residents barricaded roads with stones, burning tyres and trees in protest.
Read: City blocked from restoring power at Norwood barracks
Jojisa said she has apologised to the residents about this ‘unfortunate’ incident.
Our officers are even investigation a case of theft and vandalism, she said.
“Residents are accusing the public works people of stealing the circuit breaker and the public works programme are also doing the same.
“Now we are investigating the matter and we hope to uncover who really put us in this situation,” she said.
Meanwhile, six City Power technicians were apparently injured trying to restore power on 8 December, and Jojisa said they were rushed to the nearby hospital for shock treatment.
Details: Norwood Police Station 011 483 4609.
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