Residents battle electricity outage after cable theft in Rhodesfield
Kempton Park residents say they are being abandoned as cable theft leaves households without electricity for days, with families reporting financial losses, communication failures, and growing frustration over the City of Ekurhuleni’s slow response.
Cable theft continues to disrupt daily life in Kempton Park, leaving many residents without electricity for days at a time.
Loretta and Gideon van der Merwe have been living through this nightmare, spending more than five days without power following cable theft on December 1 in Defiant Street, Rhodesfield.
On the morning of December 1, the van der Merwe family discovered that their electricity cable had been stolen.
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They attempted to report the incident to the City of Ekurhuleni, but the system was offline. The stolen cable affects not only their household but also their neighbour.
“This is really bad, and it has been going on for too long. We’ve been following up, but nothing has been done.
“Our food spoiled, and we don’t have money to buy petrol for the generator. We are now using a huge amount of gas, which will be costly again,” Loretta van der Merwe said.
The family explained that their neighbour went to the municipality but was told a reference number was required, which the van der Merwes could only obtain on Tuesday morning because the city was offline on Monday.
This delay prevented them from lodging the report immediately.
Despite numerous attempts to get the municipality to address the problem, the family remains without electricity. The outage has caused significant financial and emotional strain.
They are unable to wash their work clothes; their fish are dying; meat has spoiled; and they need to use a lot of gas for bathing and cooking.
“As we are renting the property, the owner is not around. This makes it difficult to resolve certain issues.
“The municipality claims they are waiting for the last payment to reflect, which has left us going from pillar to post,” Loretta added.
Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) councillor Jean Kriek attempted to assist the family but was hampered by poor communication with the municipality.
“The Energy Department has set a new low in 2025, performing worse in communication and accountability than in 2024.
“Their disregard for residents is astonishing. I was even threatened with arrest by the chief area engineer for Kempton Park, Zipho Khumalo, simply for demanding answers on behalf of residents who have been without power for a week.
“The arrogance, stonewalling, and refusal to provide basic information, while cable theft and vandalism continue to cause outages, makes residents’ suffering seem like an inconvenience rather than the department’s core responsibility,” Kriek said.
Kempton Express reached out to the City of Ekurhuleni’s Department of Energy and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa on December 4.
At the time of publication, no response had been received.
