Locals faced with a supposed life-threatening situation
Several homeowners in Jensen Road in Florentia demand that the City of Ekurhuleni resolves their voltage issue as it poses danger.
Several houses in Jensen Road in Florentia have been affected by electricity supply problems.
The residents say they have been exposed to a life-threatening situation, where they have been reportedly receiving 180 to 200 volts instead of the normal voltage of 230.
Residents say this power interruption leads to electric shock and damage to appliances.
A father of two told the RECORD that running a bath or stepping into the shower forever feels like they are playing a game of Russian roulette.
“At night while trying to watch TV, the lights shut down. A piece of bread takes at least 10 minutes to warm up in a toaster. And we are reaching a point where we just want to switch off everything in the fear of losing our appliances,” he said.
He said this issue started back in November 2021, after an electricity box caught fire.
“The metro sent a contractor out to fix it, and ever since then we have been having this problem and has gotten worse over time. I had an independent electrician come out to do tests.
“We need to get between 230 to 240 volts. As you start using electricity then the voltage needs to be stable, but instead, it drops. At a certain point it drops to 130 volts,” he explained.
At night, he said he switches off the geyser hoping that the electric shock might be less when using taps, but this makes no difference.
“There’s even electricity going through the taps. If you have a sore somewhere on your hands, it shocks you through the water. I’m even scared to watch television because you don’t know if it will last you through the night.
“I’m concerned about my children’s safety and I find that this is life-threatening. We don’t switch outside lights, which poses a security risk. I have also resorted to using a gas stove and not using electricity at night.”
His neighbour, who is just as affected, said he has had at least two computer screens blown up and has had to replace several light bulbs since this problem started.
“The voltage goes up and down and you can’t boil water using a kettle when this happens. There’s not enough power to use the microphone and my daughter can’t blow dry her hair. We just have to wait for the electricity to be stable enough and then we start using it,” he said.
He reiterated that they have escalated this complaint to numerous departments to have it resolved.
City’s spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said a cable will be replaced by the CoE and that they had already started working on this problem.
“After investigating and testing the cable, we found that the cable is very old and degraded.”
