Randburg resident Gillian Irving talked about her traumatic experience after an electricity spike caused damage to most of her home appliances.
“At 10.30am on 5 December lights, appliances and plugs began to explode in my home,” she said. “Smoke billowed from my washing machine and one by one all the downlights in my house exploded. The smell of cordite alerted me to the fact that something was on fire. Two, maybe even more downlight transmitters caught alight in my ceiling.”
She called in an electrician and he discovered that 450 vaults of electricity was flowing in her home’s electrical system. “I called the Johannesburg Connect Centre number and explained the situation to the agent and she assured me that the situation had been escalated to ‘dangerous’. At this time I became aware that others in the neighbourhood were experiencing the same situation and their appliances were equally as damaged as mine.”
At about 5pm she received a call from City Power and they said the situation had been resolved. “The situation was by no means resolved as residents who returned home saw that the voltage was still high and their appliances started to explode as soon as they turned the power back on.”
She said a technical team arrived at the substation at about 5.30pm and was met by angry residents.
Ward 98 councillor Laurette van Zijl stepped in to assist the residents and she contacted the Department of Environment and Infrastructure Services’ MMC Matshidiso Mfikoe. He dispatched a team of four senior electrical staff members to rectify the problem.
Irving said, “We were relieved when the power was restored on 7 November after they replaced the problematic fuses.”
City Power spokesperson Sol Masolo apologised for the spike that caused thousands of rands worth of damage to appliances of residents in Randpark Ridge and Robinhills. He said cable theft was on the rise and the spike was caused by someone who had tampered with cables at the substation.
“Residents should be on the lookout for suspicious construction vehicles working on our electrical network, whether marked or unmarked, and report them to the City Power control room.
Details: City Power control room 011 490 7911.
