Power has been restored to Friendship Town Estate in Commercia Ext 9 following a protest by residents over a six-day electricity outage and ongoing water supply problems.

Residents took to the streets on September 3, burning tyres and barricading roads with stones and debris as they demanded urgent intervention from City Power and Johannesburg Water. The protest disrupted traffic around several roads, including the intersection of Modderfontein, Mastiff and Theresa roads.

Read more: City Power warns of grid constraints as Rabie Ridge outage investigated

Residents said they had been without electricity for about six days, while the outage had also worsened their water problems, with some stating that the estate was already experiencing extremely low water pressure.

“We are protesting because we don’t have electricity for six days and the water,” Estate resident Mmaphuthi Mpai said. “When you don’t have electricity, it affects the water. That’s the reason why today we took to the streets.”

Residents also raised concerns about City Power’s monthly fixed service charge, which they said amounts to R250. Mpai said residents had previously been told that the charge would eventually fall away after two years. “If you buy R1 000 electricity, they deduct the whole R250.

If you buy R300, they take a portion of it, then when you buy again they take the balance or a portion until the R250 is paid,” said Mpai. “The mandate is that we do not want to pay the R250 service fee anymore. We want it to stop, like in other areas.”

Residents further alleged that illegal electricity connections from a nearby informal settlement were putting additional pressure on the mini-substation supplying the estate. They claimed the substation was overloaded and that City Power was aware of the problem but had not resolved it.

Also read: City Power restores Jasper Hill and Longview electricity

Residents said they had repeatedly approached City Power in Midrand before escalating the matter to the utility’s head offices in Booysens. According to residents, they were told, on September 2, that electricity would be restored by 14:00, but the deadline passed without the supply returning.

Resident Delisile Nkosi said some elderly residents rely on medication that requires refrigeration, while food had also spoiled during the outage.

“Children can’t write assignments. It is affecting us a lot. You can just imagine, seven days without electricity or water. We are using the toilets but we don’t have water. Health-wise, we are very affected.”

Ward 12 councillor Gloria Ndinisa, who was present at the protest, said service delivery in Friendship Town Estate was complicated by the fact that the estate falls under Ekurhuleni, while some services are provided by City of Johannesburg entities. “We are serviced by two service municipalities, which makes it difficult to manage the services,” said Ndinisa.

She said residents had previously experienced water outages lasting between two and three weeks and had relied on JoJo tanks and water tankers. Ndinisa said she had escalated the latest water outage, but no tanker had arrived by the time of the protest.

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She also confirmed that residents had been expecting electricity to be restored on September 2. “At around 18:00, we got another update that the power had been restored, but Friendship Town Estate was still without electricity. Hence, they stood up today,” she said.

Ndinisa said the water challenges in the estate had persisted for years and suggested that a long-term solution could involve integrating the Johannesburg Water infrastructure serving the estate into Ekurhuleni’s system.

“We cannot have City Power and Johannesburg Water, which fall under Johannesburg Municipality, but the waste and other services are Ekurhuleni. The bills for this estate are paid to Ekurhuleni. We want to find a solution on how to address these matters under one umbrella, so that we can control it.”

Midrand Reporter sent media enquiries to City Power and Johannesburg Water on September 3 regarding the prolonged electricity and water problems affecting the area. At 20:20 on the same day, City Power confirmed that electricity supply had been restored at the Allandale substation, which affected customers in Rabie Ridge Ext 4 and Commercia Ext 9.

The restoration means the prolonged electricity outage affecting Friendship Town Estate has been resolved, although residents’ concerns about water supply, continuous power outages, and other service delivery issues remain.

Johannesburg Water had not responded to questions by the time of publication. Its response will be added once received.

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