RESIDENTS living in Ward 31 are at their wits’ end due to constant power outages in the ward following scheduled load-shedding times. Areas that fall under Ward 31 include Musgrave, Mayville, Sherwood and Sydenham, and multiple residents have come forward, saying they have been forced to live without power for hours at a time, with no indication from the eThekwini Municipality on when they can expect their electricity to be restored.

Residents are outraged 

Musgrave resident Heather Kohler says the residents of Oakleigh Road in Musgrave and surrounds had one of the worst Christmas periods in their history.

“Many residents were without power for days and were desperately concerned about food in fridges and freezers going off. There have been reports of the contents of fridges having to be thrown away. The Ward 31 councillor tried her utmost to assist but was faced with unanswered calls and nobody responding to resolve the desperate situation residents found themselves in,” said Kohler.

Kohler, like many residents in the area, is fed up and says the constant power outages are totally unacceptable. “We all pay rates, and to have arrogant and unresponsive municipality workers during a crisis such as this leaves ratepayers seething with anger. Action should be taken to make eThekwini employees aware that the people who pay their salaries need to be looked after when they find themselves in the circumstances that arose during the holiday period,” said the frustrated resident.

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Ward 31 resident Irene Mackraj says the impact of having power cuts during the festive season has been severe. “Older people who are most vulnerable were affected. They could not implement proper security measures. Gates were left open, and intruders were trying to come into their properties. Food had to be dumped. We slept in fear at night. Basics like cooking, bathing and basic cleanliness were impacted severely. The uncertainty and the lack of proper deadlines to fix things were extremely stressful despite repeated communication attempts by the councillor and members of the community.”

Ward 31 committee member Elyse Brissett says there have been numerous power outages in the area, and despite reaching out to the eThekwini Municipality, their complaints have been ignored. “Some of our issues are being closed off without being attended to, and we are having to report them again. The turnaround time for the repairs is far too slow, and some are not attended to at all. What do we need to do to get better results?” said Brisset.

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Councillor comments 

Ward 31 Councillor Remona Mckenzie says she experienced tremendous challenges with electricity outages in Ward 31 and across the city during the Christmas and New Year period. “Extensive and extended power outages are still being experienced across the ward due to frail and compromised electrical infrastructure. The current system cannot cope with the constraints of load-shedding. The extended periods of load-shedding and/or system breakdowns, are a huge concern, and residents are questioning when this will end,” said Mckenzie.
Mckenzie says residents need proper service delivery and not excuses.

“Discussions with colleagues in the city revealed they are experiencing similar issues of six to ten hours and more power cuts, which is definitely related to lack of infrastructure maintenance by both Escom and the municipalities. To add to frustrations, call centres were not functional during the festive season; it was difficult for residents to get reference numbers for escalation purposes. We are tired of having to listen to excuses of call centres unable to receive calls due to technical faults. These systems should have been upgraded to handle the influx of reports. The municipality needs to prioritise the urgent services and make sure that, in future, residents are not subjected to or forced to live in this manner,” said Mckenzie.

eThekwini Municipality responds

eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela says that these outages outside of the load-shedding schedule are because of the system tripping out, as it is not designed to be frequently switched on and off.
“When the power comes back after load-shedding, there are instances where there is high demand, which results in too-low voltage substations being overburdened and eventually switching off,” said Mayisela.

“We are appealing to our residents to ensure that, during load-shedding, they switch off all their appliances so that the demand for the grid is reduced substantially. By doing so, our communities will be helping us to aggressively move towards mitigating these incidents,” said the spokesperson.