Residents from Newclare have been heavily affected by cable theft in August.
This has now led to City Power bringing in generators to power some of the streets in Newclare mainly Southey Avenue.
The problem, however, is that the residents have been complaining that the generators have been left unattended and now the residents in the area have to keep guard in shifts.
Cleo Prince who lives in the area said they have tried all channels of reporting the incident but with no luck since August.
“We have been in talks with the Hursthill Depot (City Power) management, we have informed our ward councillor Susan Stewart and I have personally messaged the MD of city power
“There was no reply from him though and on the September 19 I emailed the mayoral office of Herman Mashaba but his office has forward the mail to City Power to sort out the matter alas until today we have not had feedback from City power,” said Prince.
In an email between a resident, City Power management, Stewart and the office of the mayor they said that they will be fixing the problem as soon as possible but to avail.
Lebo Maroane from City Power stated in the email that clear assistance will be provided in two weeks which is almost two months ago.
Cedric Kok a resident said in his shift he sleeps at 1am but has to wake up for work at 5am.
“We are not fully trained as security guards, yet we have taken it upon ourselves to guard that generator until the early hours of the morning, due to fear that it might be vandalized and we will then sit with no power and we manage to attend to our daily jobs dog tired.
“It has been over a month and a half and we the residents are burnt out, and highly frustrated.
“On September 9 we had a meeting with our ward councillor and a representative from City Power who promised to speed up the process to have the substation repaired but to date three weeks later still no response,” said Kok.
Upon contact, City Power’s communications department was not reachable.
A formal follow-up will be done.
