5 days in the dark: ‘Gatvol’ Roodepoort residents take to the streets over power crisis
From ruined home businesses to struggling families, ongoing utility failures have pushed residents from Strubens Valley to the edge.
As a grim reflection of South Africa’s deepening power infrastructure crisis, furious Strubens Valley residents from Roodepoort on the West Rand took to the streets yesterday afternoon (June 26) after being plunged into darkness for five consecutive days, reports Roodepoort Rekord.
Gathering at the intersection of Hendrik Potgieter and Krugerrand roads, the demonstrators called for the immediate restoration of electricity, saying the prolonged outage has disrupted their daily lives and left many families struggling without power.
“We’ve been living without electricity for five days and I run a business from home. This means I have to rely on other costly alternatives,” said resident Max Haywood.
“We still don’t know when the power will be restored because there is no formal communication between the utility and us,” she added.
Another protester said residents had exhausted every avenue before taking to the streets.
“We have reported the outage over and over again but nothing has changed. We feel ignored and we just want our electricity back,” said resident Theresho Choenyana.
The protest remains peaceful as residents continue to demand answers and a clear timeline for the restoration of electricity while bracing for the ongoing outage.
Traffic continues to flow in both directions on Hendrik Potgieter Road and Krugerrand Road, with authorities monitoring the situation.
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