Powerless – again
ANGRY residents are ready to take rotten food and dump it on the councillor’s front door after spending another weekend without electricity. Power went off on Friday afternoon, and again left large areas in Alberton with no electricity the whole weekend. By Monday morning a number of households still had no electricity. This adversely affected …
ANGRY residents are ready to take rotten food and dump it on the councillor’s front door after spending another weekend without electricity.
Power went off on Friday afternoon, and again left large areas in Alberton with no electricity the whole weekend.
By Monday morning a number of households still had no electricity.
This adversely affected residents as they had to resort to generators, leaving them with extra expenses.
Areas which experienced outages included parts of New Redruth, Florentia, Alberante, Alberton’s CBD, South Crest, Raceview and part of Randhart.
Nicci Bala, an affected resident from Florentia told the RECORD that they had been affected by the electricity outage for two consecutive weekends.
“It has been a frustrating experience as this weekend, it went off from Friday. As much as it is frustrating, I would like to extend my gratitude to our ward councillor, Tiaan Kotzé, who has been keeping us updated on social media platforms,” she said.
Tanya Figueira, a South Crest resident, whose power went off on August 23, and was only switched back on Sunday expressed her frustration too.
“This caused a huge loss in terms of food that was spoilt. We had to spend additional costs on food for my family of five.
“To claim back for the losses of our food and appliances we now need to complete a lengthy claim form and take it, in person, to Benoni causing more inconvenience,” she said.
She also added that as a result of power outages dishes and clothes could not be washed, leaving them to spend hours on Sunday night trying to catch up on those chores.
“Our neighbourhood was put at risk as most gates had to be put onto manual, and alarm system batteries were not able to last for the full outage period. Our cellphone batteries could not be charged as well, leading to serious risks,” she said.
Theo Charalampous, a business owner in Alrode appealed for councillors to intervene.
“We ask our councillors to give us answers although it might not be easy. This is sad because it’s affecting our business and also the economy of the country.
“We have business owners and residents that lose food and production all along without someone being held accountable,” he commented.
Many questions raised
According to Ward 106 councillor, alderman Bruna Haipel, the ongoing electricity outages have been affecting greater Alberton residents for four consecutive weekends.
This has left residents frustrated and in the dark for days on end. Ward 106 and 37 residents have been adversely affected by this and are at times taken from pillar to post when calling the City of Ekurhuleni’s call centre.
Haipel said as councillors they have residents’ interests at heart.
“Despite having all the officials’ direct telephone numbers, very often we cannot get the required information. These regular outages raise many questions and the councillors have demanded a complete report of the cause of each outage, which to date, has not yet been forthcoming but has been promised for next week,” she said.
Haipel told the RECORD that the two councillors have been on an inspection tour of affected substations, faulty cables and stolen fuses.
She said through this, they were appalled at the state of some of these areas and the depth at which some of the cables were found.
“There are obviously various unexplained reasons why there are delays in restoration of power and we are extremely concerned by the fact that the EMM’s electricity department is understaffed due to resignations, engineers going on pension and non-appointment of in-house electricity contractors.
“The community will be informed as soon as we have a full report and if necessary there will be a public meeting,” she added.
“As councillors, we requested urgent intervention from the department by contacting the HOD, technicians and standby teams.
Teams went out to see what had happened and this is where total chaos ensued.
“No sooner did they try to repair one fault that another occurred. I have requested a full report from HOD Marc Wilson. This will be presented at the public meeting which will be held on August 31,” she said.
She also requested that the mayor, the HOD, the MMC and various other officials be sent a formal invitation to the meeting.
“The mayor needs to take responsibility for what is regularly occurring, not only in Alberton but in other areas as well,” she said.
The Alberton councillors have pledged their support to the community and do their utmost to assist in any way possible but disaster cannot be avoided by them.
Public meeting:
Alberton residents are urged to attend a public meeting to address the problem on August 31 at 2pm in the conference centre at the Alberton Civic Centre.
The ward councillors of Wards 37, 94 and 106 are calling for this meeting as requested by the community.
Residents shall decide on action to be taken with regard to continuous power outages over the weekends.
A steering committee will be elected at the meeting, tasked with executing the decisions of the public.
Councillors are not permitted to participate in any activity against the municipality; however, the councillors of the above-mentioned wards pledge their support and commitment to be of service to the community of Alberton.
At the meeting there will be claim forms that can be filled in by residents to claim for damages and losses.
There will also be petitions to request the mayor to make sure that EMM takes responsibility for losses.
