Residents in Randburg recently experienced shocks when in contact with water and taps, after high and low voltage surges were caused by a fault in overhead lines.
The Randburg Service Delivery Centre (SDC) apologised to residents of Bordeaux South, after the incident.
About four houses in Main Street experienced these power issues that caused shocks when using their taps and taking showers.
City Power met with ward councillor Lucinda Harman and representatives of the resident associations on-site to investigate the issue.
One of the affected residents, Mano Wilson, explained that for the past few months, they had been having high and low voltages and they had lodged complaints.
“Everybody comes along with good intentions to look but I do not think there has been an in-depth investigation to sort this out. We have low voltages and high voltages. We are getting shocks in the shower. Whenever we open the taps there is high power. Most of the time we try and switch off all appliances because sometimes when you use a kettle, you cannot use other things because of too low voltage.”
He added that there is no consistent power gauge in the voltage. When City Power technicians checked Wilson’s house the power was 170V – which is low.
“When it goes high, it goes up to 280V, and we recently had one of our Wi-Fi batteries blow up because of high voltage. More than that it’s the shocks that we are more concerned about – we are scared to even take a shower.”
Entity spokesperson Isaac Mangena explained that their team conducted investigations in the area and compiled a report to resolve the problem.
“The incident was caused by a fault in the overhead lines which resulted in residents experiencing shocks and high voltage when using appliances. Our technicians attended to the fault, which was located in the overhead lines, and repaired it to stop the shocking effect and high voltage challenge.”
He added that they are working on installing a new pole box in the area. The new pole will help protect neutral connections from water and other external damages. This will ensure that challenges experienced by residents recently do not arise.
“Safety measures were put in place to ensure the safety of customers, members of the public and its employees who work on the utility’s electrical infrastructure. Safety is a priority at City Power. This incident is uncommon and unfortunate. After an investigation into the matter, the correct course of action to remedy the issue has been implemented. The inconvenience caused to customers is regretted.”
The entity urged local communities to participate in its community partnership programme on electricity network infrastructure security to protect it in order to minimise power outages.
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