Fibre fuels residents’ frustrations

Residents of Randpark Ridge, Boskruin and Bromhof are fed-up with power outages and water cuts that have plagued their areas for the last couple of weeks.

Many believe the faults can be attributed to work done by telecommunications company Vumatel.

Hendrik Ferreira said, “We residents are up in arms against Vumatel; we were without water for 48 hours.”

One resident said, “We in Randpark Ridge (Ext 41) seem to be the worst hit and have been having constant power outages. Also upsetting is the destruction Vumatel is causing in our area, including the damage to walkways around our schools.

“My neighbour and I were without power for three days consecutively and again for a day and almost another two days thereafter due to our power cable being damaged with the digging.”

Ward 134 councillor, Wendy Alexandra said, “The stress put into the system by Vumatel last week, also impacted City Power’s ability to back-feed some of its customers, which would have elevated some of the power issues, while the team continued to make the repair.”

She added that City Power’s infrastructure has been neglected for years, by not receiving the maintenance and upgrades needed to prevent these types of outages.

In reaction to City Power and Vumatel’s agreement to site meetings being mediated by a certified City Power contractor and attended by City Power’s Randburg manager, Alexander added, “I hope to see that every precaution is taken to secure the City’s infrastructure by the contractor.”