Residents of Third Avenue in Lambton, Germiston, say they have been left exhausted, financially strained, and increasingly unsafe as electricity outages plague the neighbourhood.

With some homes receiving only three full days of stable power in November, this has worried residents.

For the past four weeks, large sections of Germiston have been affected by persistent power interruptions, but residents of Third Avenue say their situation has reached a crisis point.

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According to long-time resident Lisa Bradshaw, the community has experienced multiple outages lasting up to four days at a time, with voltage dropping to as low as 160–170 volts even when electricity is restored.

South Africa’s standard supply sits at 220 volts, and residents say the reduced voltage has left home appliances barely functioning.

“Lights were dim, fridges were straining, geysers took far longer to heat, and ovens hardly cooked food,” Bradshaw explained. “We didn’t even attempt to use microwaves. Many of us resorted to gas kettles because boiling water took 10 to 15 minutes.”

The latest wave of problems began on November 10 when sections of Third Avenue lost power again.

Despite residents logging calls with the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE), Bradshaw says her report was dismissed due to a system error on the CoE platform, which incorrectly pulled through her stand number instead of her house number.

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“When I followed up, I was told my ticket was null and void because there is no number on that street,” she said.

“Unable to re-log the complaint due to system issues, residents began relying on reference numbers logged by neighbours. Days passed without updates from the local ward councillor, with feedback only arriving on November 13, when residents were informed that the fault had finally been located, but not repaired,” said Bradshaw.

Complicating matters, a larger area outage was reported later that same day, forcing technicians to divert their attention away from the Third Avenue fault.

Residents were then informed that all existing CoE service tickets had been closed simply because the fault was identified, not repaired and they now needed to log new cases.

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Bradshaw says communication with their ward councillor has become increasingly tense.

“No one even wants to report issues through our councillor anymore because the conversations often become heated and defensive,” she said.

She noted that updates from the councillor only resumed once the wider Germiston outage occurred, which triggered standard communication protocols.

In contrast, Bradshaw commended the councillor’s party whip, whom she contacted independently.

“He has been incredibly helpful. He calls, he follows up, and he gives us updates when he can,” said Bradshaw.

The repeated outages and low-voltage conditions have inflicted financial strain on households. Many residents have had to throw away spoiled food and face additional costs for backup lighting or alternative cooking methods.

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“Times are tough. Everyone is budgeting down to the last rand, and now we’re throwing away hundreds, if not thousands of rands worth of food,” said Bradshaw.

“Our alarm systems do not work. Electric gates have to be pushed open and closed manually, which is difficult for some residents, and it leaves our homes and vehicles vulnerable.”

Residents argue that despite these hardships, they are still expected to purchase prepaid electricity in advance, often without being able to use it.

“Only in this country do you pay for a product you cannot use,” Bradshaw added. “But heaven forbid we pay our rates bill late.”

Bradshaw, a lifelong resident who grew up in Albemarle and attended local schools, says the deterioration of service delivery is heartbreaking.

“For 13 years Lambton has been my home, but lately it feels less like home and more like a burden,” said Bradshaw.

The GCN requested comment from CoE city spokesperson Zweli Dlamini and he blamed the outage on power cable faults.

“Third and Second Avenues are affected by the outages and repairs are delayed by bad weather. Restoration expected November 21,” said Dlamini.