Difference of opinion about councillor

A Cyrildene resident expressed shock at the way she was allegedly treated by Clr Carlos Da Rocha recently while another expressed gratitude for his help.

Ms Nabilah Moosa said cables were stolen in Christeen Avenue, Cyrildene, on July 6.

City Power addressed the problem but another power outage occurred.

She called Clr Da Rocha on July 9 to report the problem.

“I called him again on June 10 to ask what was going on. He said he had people with no electricity for nine days. I told him it is disgusting that he had people who were experiencing power outages for nine days. These are people we voted in. He did nothing for us. We were without electricity for three days. He was rude. I have a father who needs medical attention and is on oxygen. There are lots of old people living on our street and people depend on electricity.

“Councillors are there to communicate with the correct people to resolve problems. If there are so many people reporting problems to him, he should be able to handle the stress,” she said.

Ms Moosa said the residents managed to get City Power to the area to resolve the problem. Although not in Clr Da Rocha’s ward, Ms Moosa said she had to contact him as Clr Mike Spadino had not been sworn in at the time.

Clr Da Rocha said that when he received the call from Ms Moosa he told her he would report her problem and he did.

“I obtained her address and I informed a City Power official. The official said he would send someone out and he did,” said Clr Da Rocha.

He said that when Ms Moosa called him on June 10, she informed him that City Power only arrived the day before at about 7pm.

“She complained about how late they arrived and that they asked her for tea. Then they looked at the wires and left without fixing them.

“I told her I would try and help her. I also told her that due to the cold front there were breakdowns just about everywhere,” said Clr Da Rocha.

He said he mentioned that the breakdowns were so severe that he had one area where the residents were without power for nine days due to the severity of the problem.

“This comment was about residents of Eckstein Street. The reason for that comment was purely to explain to Ms Moosa that we had a serious power crisis in the form of breakdowns in ward 66. She became insulting and abusive,” said Clr Da Rocha.

He added that Ms Moosa also wanted contact numbers for City Power officials which he could not give her.

He said the reason the team left without repairing the problem that night is because they had to procure material to replace a broken wire. “When there is a breakdown, the teams investigate the problem first and then fetch the material needed to fix the problem. They always return to finish the job,” he said.

He said in Ms Moosa’s case, the workers did return and fixed the problem.

Ms Maggie Abrahams, a Troyeville resident, said she raised several problems with Clr Da Rocha, the latest being two weeks ago and is thankful for his help.

“There are constant power outages in my area. When there was a power outage last year, I obtained Clr Da Rocha’s phone number from a friend. People were stealing electricity and that led to power outages. I called him and he came out to help. His intervention stopped people from stealing electricity. Two weeks ago we were without power for three days. People in my street contacted City Power and they were apparently told the problem would take days to repair,” she said.

Ms Abrahams said she then contacted Clr Da Rocha and the problem was fixed sooner. “I commend him because he really goes out of his way. Whoever he communicates with and whatever he does really works when it comes to resolving our problems,” she said.

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