Authorities face the wrath of an angry community in Rabie Ridge

Authorities had to deal with angry residents on March 20, after the community of Rabie Ridge spent countless days without electricity.

Leaders of the community organised a protest, in hopes that it would grab the attention of City Power, and other government officials.

It is alleged that leaders of the community have tried to talk to their councillors, however, no attention was paid to them, leaving them with no choice but to protest.

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Daniel Elbowers, community leader in Rabie Ridge, said: “What we are experiencing is unnecessary issues. We have two councillors, Rabie Ridge has been divided into two sections, but our councillors are failing us. Load reduction is costing lives in our community, as City Power has been fixing cables everyday but are not consistent with their work. After two days of them fixing, the power goes again and we have to sit for days without electricity.

“There is a cable that they have put in, which has six joints, and when there is rain, it damages the cable because they have not replaced it with a new one. City Power has been doing this since last year July, and the councillors are failing us, even though they live here and see what is happening.”

Some of the community members have added that these power outages have made their food go rotten, while some of their appliances have completely stopped working.

Also read: UPDATE: Police open fire on protesting Rabie Ridge residents

One of the community members, Dino Ostrich, has urged City Power to fix their cables, as his eight-year-old son survives on an oxygen mask. “We are tired of City Power and their empty promises. I have an eight-year-old son who survives on an oxygen mask. Every 3 hours I have to put him on oxygen, but when there is no electricity he gets affected badly.”

Community members began to feel restless after they were promised a meeting by City Power officials to give updates to the community at around 10:00, but they never showed up.

Motorists tried to gain access to the streets of Rabie Ridge, but community members tried to stop them. This led to the police opposing what the community members were doing, and things soon took a turn for the worse, with police officers releasing tear gas and firing rubber bullets into the crowd, while they retaliated by throwing stones at the police and their cars.

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JMPD Superintendent Xolani Fehla said: “JMPD officers, in Region A, along with members of the SAPS, responded to the protest in Rabie Ridge. The residents were demonstrating due to ongoing power outages in the area, which led to road blockades.”

Due to the strike, and the rubber bullets, some community members were left wounded, having to be taken to the station to receive medical help, since ambulances could not make it through the blocked streets.

Isaac Mangena, spokesperson for City Power, said: “We are here so that we can deal with the issues that the community is facing before things can go wrong. We had a meeting with the residents this morning and showed them reasons as to what it is that we are willing to do to fix the problems that they are facing. As we speak right now, there is a contractor in Rabie Ridge station placing a new cable, but due to the recent rains, we could not proceed with our project.

“We also urge those who are not paying their electricity bills to go to the counters and buy electricity so that when they have needs, we also can assist them.”

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