City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena confirmed that power outages in South Hills were caused by cable theft which resulted in cables that caught alight and then had to be repaired.
The power was off in the area, especially Holmdene Street, for five days. Resident Charmaine Swanepoel said the electricity went off on July 1 and only came back on July 6, this all because of cable theft. According to her, she has been notifying the municipality of hanging cables on poles since September.
“On July 2 workers came out and fixed the problem but then the power pole in front of my house exploded,” Swanepoel added.
Magdelena van der Sandt said she has to be on oxygen and due to the power outages she had to make another plan and spend money on oxygen pumps.
“Two of the residents in our street have to be on oxygen 24/7 and since the power outage they have been hospitalised,” said van der Sandt.
According to another resident, Tilla Venter, they get shocked when using water.
“It was as if there was electricity in our taps,” she said.
About eight poles burnt. Residents did not get through to the call centre, so they called the fire brigade who came and extinguished the fire. In the process, they wet all the wires.
Tilla also said workers left the cables open and she feels it is a big safety hazard as there are a lot of children living on the street.
Jenny-Lee Kleynhans, also a resident of Holmdene Street, said the councillor kept on telling them she will escalate the matter.
“Our councillor has been no help at all,” she said.
Peter Willmore, living in the same street, said they struggle to get through to the municipality.
“If you get through, they will hang up the phone,” he said.
Anver Theron said he is working from home and the power outage has been a big inconvenience for him as he is not able to do his job.
Owner of Kwezi Zola Old Age Centre Zola Majoro said she is frustrated with the power outage and that she can’t look after the fragile elderly in her care.
“I must make a plan for food, warm water, lights and to keep their oxygen machines running,” she said.
Ward 57 councillor Faeeza Chame said the residents have informed her about the outages they experienced. She, in turn, made follow-ups with City Power.
“City Power responded that they don’t have enough technicians and spare parts. They do not keep spares on the premises; they have to collect them in Midrand. For days they gave me story upon story. On July 4, I went myself to City Power to speak to the manager.
Upon arrival, there was a protest. The protesters did not want the City Power trucks to leave the yard. This added another strain on the residents. Finally the next day the technicians went out to complete the job.
“My frustration with City Power is they don’t give regular updates to ward councillors, while the residents expect updates from us.
The infrastructure like the street poles is very old and rusted; this was also the main contributor to the outage, lack of maintenance.
“One of my other observations is that their work is not professional after they dig into the ground to repair the cables they don’t close the holes and the cables are exposed. This poses a danger to our residents. The technicians are overworked because they must run around like lunatics.
“City Power needs to hire more staff so that technicians can concentrate on their jobs and be able to deliver a high standard of completed work,” explained Chame.
