Germiston South without power for two months

The residents of Germiston South Ext 9 have been without power for the past two months.

A transformer fault affected 62 households, disrupting the local economy and people’s lives.

The residents told the GCN how the darkness had affected them.

Kwatate Street resident and preschool owner, Florence Kgafane, said the power went off on June 14, and the community had grown impatient with the situation.

ALSO READ: Local water supply interrupted by power outages

“The call centre was contacted to report the matter soon after the explosion,” said Kgafane.

“No one has communicated the restoration time. No technicians have been to the ground to check on the transformer. The metro said they will not fix it because residents do not pay their bills.”

According to Kgafane, children’s health and safety are at risk because they might breathe in gas fumes.

“We must buy gas and a paraffin stove to cook and do chores. These are extra costs we did not plan for. We basically live hand to mouth.

“We have to consider cutting staff salaries because of all the extra daily costs,” said Kgafane.

ALSO READ: Local community battles with power outages

Pub owner Vusi Mahlangu said he had lost customers because they would not buy hot drinks.

“Until the power is fully restored, I will only work on the weekends. We had to spend R2 400 on fuel in one weekend to run the generator. Additionally, we must close early because of safety concerns due to the absence of power,” said Mahlangu.

The CoE said excessive overloading because of additional backrooms caused the transformer to explode.

“There is excessive network interference in bypassing meters, which adds to the overloading. This overloading results in failures of transformers across the city,” said CoE spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.

“The city is procuring replacement transformers and/or repairing damaged transformers,” said Dlamini.
GCN requested further comment on August 16 at 10:00. By the time of going to print, no comment was received.