Days without electricity and water pushed frustrated Friendship Town Estate residents onto the streets on September 3, where they burnt tyres and barricaded roads in a desperate call for action.

The protest disrupted traffic around the intersection of Modderfontein, Mastiff and Theresa roads as residents demanded urgent intervention from City Power and Johannesburg Water. The estate is located in Commercia Extension 9 in Ward 12, which is serviced by both Joburg and Ekurhuleni municipalities.

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Residents said they had been without electricity for about six days, while the power outage had compounded existing water problems at the estate, where some households already experience extremely low water pressure.

Estate resident Mmaphuthi Mpai said the prolonged outage had left residents with little choice but to protest. “We are protesting because we don’t have electricity for six days and the water,” said Mpai. “When you don’t have electricity, it affects the water. The water also goes; 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,” she said. “The mandate is that we do not want to pay the R250 service fee anymore.”

Residents call for lasting solution to outages

Residents also called for a dedicated mini-transformer for Friendship Town, stating that it would help address recurring outages and give the community greater control over the electricity supply.

Mpai said residents were willing to safeguard the transformer themselves against alleged illegal connections from a nearby informal settlement that they claimed overloads the mini-substation.

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Resident Delisile Nkosi said some elderly residents rely on medication that requires refrigeration, while food had spoilt during the outage. “It’s affecting us a lot because we have elderly people who are using medication which is supposed to be in the fridge, and the food is rotten,” said Nkosi.

“Children can’t write assignments,” added Nkosi. “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 during the protest, said service delivery in Friendship Town was complicated by the estate’s location in Ekurhuleni and its reliance on certain services provided by City of Johannesburg entities.

“Since I took over in 2021, the problem has been the water, which is supplied by Johannesburg Water and City Power, while the ward is in Ekurhuleni,” said Ndinisa. “We are then serviced by two service municipalities, which makes it difficult to manage the services.”

Ndinisa suggested that a long-term solution could involve integrating the Johannesburg Water infrastructure serving Friendship Town into Ekurhuleni’s system.

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City Power dismissed claims that residents were promised that their monthly electricity service fee would be waived after two years.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the applicable fixed monthly charge for residential prepaid customers comprises a R70 service charge and a R130 network capacity charge.

“These charges are separate from the customer’s electricity consumption charges and contribute towards the fixed costs associated with providing and maintaining the electricity network,” said Mangena.

“City Power has not promised residents that the applicable service charge would be discontinued after two years,” Mangena added.

City Power confirmed that electricity supply to Friendship Town Estate was fully restored on September 3, following repairs to a failed transformer on the Eskom side of the network. The outage was first reported on August 29.

Regarding calls for a dedicated mini-substation, City Power stated that the estate already has mini-substations within the complex and any proposal for additional infrastructure would need technical assessment.

Johannesburg Water had not responded to questions about the water shortages sent on September 3, requesting an extension on September 7 to allow the relevant depot to respond.

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