Weeks of darkness cripples Montclair households
Residents have to manually exit their vehicle and push open the gate, exposing them to a possible risk of hijacking
ALLEGED cable thieves have left about 40 households in Montclair in the dark for almost two weeks and counting.
The families affected are suffering immensely as food have gone to waste in defrosting fridges and freezers, forcing them to toss out the spoiled items. Cooking is out of the question as they resort to the pricy option of eating out. Besides financial loss, residents have complained of the security risk since electric gates and alarm systems cease to function without electricity. People have no choice but to manually exit their vehicle and push open the gate, exposing them to the risk of hijacking.
A concerned affected resident said she and her neighbours have reached a boiling point as their complaints to the municipality are falling on deaf ears. It does not help when they read a concerning notice in a local paper from the municipality about an interruption of services. “In the notice it said they are experiencing delays in providing services including water and electricity because of threats and intimidation that contractors and municipal are faced while on the job. In other words we are stuck with this problem for possibly another week. I feel this is excuses made up by poor management,” said the disgruntled resident.
She remembers the day the lights went out, “I woke up at 4.30am on 27 January to discover that there was no electricity and since then power has not been restored. We had an electrician in to assess the problem, and he confirmed that it was indeed cable theft. There are 10 units in our complex and some live alone or are sickly such as a 70-year-old man who is bedridden,” she said.
Residents, have been overcome by the heat without the benefit of fans or aircons, “It is unbearable, there is nothing you can do but sit with all the doors and windows open in hope of catching a breeze. It does make one appreciate the small things in life, also now we know how people in disadvantaged areas suffer at the hands of poor service delivery,” she added.
