Power off for almost a week at St Mary’s Children’s Home

Rossettenville’s St Mary’s Children’s Home has been without power for nearly a week and counting, causing service delays for the home.

According to the assistant director of the home, Hilario Zimudzi, power has been out since the morning of April 9 and they initially thought it was due to load-shedding, but realised that all neighbouring houses had power.

“After realising it was a fault and not load-shedding, we reported it to City Power online on Monday morning. After reporting, I received no correspondence or phone calls from them. They finally arrived on Wednesday, after we had made several attempts to resolve the issue through ward councillor Michael Crichton.

“When they arrived, there was a lock that had previously been installed by other City Power technicians when we had a problem. The team that arrived this time stated that the lock was a private lock that they could not open.

“They then instructed us to contact them after we opened the gates. To open those gates, we needed a bolt cutter. We called them all day Wednesday after we opened, but they ignored us.

“They only returned on Thursday morning. They looked and discovered the issue. They then stated that the problem could only be solved by the operator due to their inexperience with such issues. They promised to report to the team leader at City Power so that an operator could be dispatched to fix the problem.

“At 12:30, they left St Mary’s. They returned at 15:30 without an operator. They tried and failed to solve the problem. They waited for an operator for quite some time who did not arrive and left around 16:45 because they said it was their time off.

“Today (Friday), they returned around 07:00 with another employee, whose title we do not know, and abruptly stated that the major circuit breaker (MCB) that is broken is St Mary’s Children’s Home property, not City Power property. This is even though the MCB is connected before the City Power meter. If it was after the City Power meter, we would understand that it’s St Mary’s Children’s Home property.”

Zimudzi emphasised that the power issue is affecting them drastically.

“We lost food for a month because we had to give it away since it was getting spoiled. We don’t know how we’ll feed the children because, like all charities, we’re struggling financially. Furthermore, because it has been extremely cold this week, our children are bathing in cold water and some got sick.

“Moreover, our college and university students need to study and submit assignments online, but their laptop batteries are dead, and they don’t have access to Wi-Fi. We are also unable to work in the office because we cannot access our emails and our phones are not working,” Zimudzi said.

Crichton said he was made aware of the problem and that he had been in contact with City Power since the problem was brought to his attention.

“City Power told me that the locker was preventing them from entering. When I inquired again today, they said that the electrician who was working on the issue said that the power had been restored, which is untrue because the home is still without power. Then I was informed that it had to be an internal trip.

“It is concerning because locals in other areas are experiencing the same issue. We are doing everything we can to work with City Power to try and resolve this,” said Chrichton.

Michael Crichton said City Power sent two separate electricians and both confirmed that it is the internal breaker that keeps on tripping and that is what’s causing them to have no electricity. St Mary’s Children’s Home will have to get a private electrician to fix the problem.

Sonja Harmse, director of St Mary’s Children’s Home can be contacted on 083 267 3515.

The Comaro Chronicle requested City Power’s comment and will publish it as soon as received.