‘We can’t live like this, it’s a mess’ – Pretoria private estates residents hit by constant power outages

Hundreds of residents living in private estates in the east of Pretoria have been plunged into darkness following persistent long-lasting power outages, thanks to nightly cable theft.

Residents from The Blyde, Greencreek and Savannah Country Estate spent about eight days in the past two weeks without power.

Now residents believe that the Balwin property company and the municipality were not doing enough to prevent cable theft at the Heatherly substation power lines.

They said they had been suffering from power problems since 2019.

On November 14, residents reported a power outage around 17:00, which was blamed on cable theft that happened in broad daylight.

The power was restored at 21:10 on Tuesday but then went off again on Wednesday at 09:15.

Last week Thursday afternoon, the power was restored but went off again at 02:30 the following morning.

For Blyde estate resident and mother of a two-year-old and five-year-old, Annelize Moogley, this was a nightmare.

“We were without any power for three days during the week of November 7,” she said. “On top of this, we had power problems for five days last week.”

Moogley has been living at the estate for the past six years and said it was an ongoing problem.

She said the property company told them that the outages were caused by cable theft.

“It has been a nightmare, I have babies that I have to feed and we do not have gas in our house.

“It is costing us more money because we have to buy takeaways to eat.

“Last year, the same thing happened close to December and residents took to the streets because they were so fed up with the problem.”

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Two college students, who did not want to be named, told Rekord that the power outages were disrupting their exams.

“We had to book a boardroom at The Blyde that has power for 24 hours so that we could study and write online exams.

“But things turned messy after staff had double-booked them and we were told to leave the boardroom before the 24 hours ended.

“I had an exam on Thursday and my laptop’s battery is very low and I cannot study. I am very frustrated.”

The students accused the staff of not being sympathetic or caring for their problems.

Another student, a 21-year-old college student, said during power outages there were no alternatives made for students who were writing exams until Thursday.

Balwin confirmed that a resident booked the boardroom for the entire day on November 17 but said this was an error by a staff member, stating that the boardroom could only be booked for a maximum of four hours.

Balwin also denied that students were “kicked out of the boardroom” as alleged.

ALSO READ: Nellmapius residents form patrols to fight cable theft

Since then, the CRC church on the corner of Graham and Solomon Mahlangu roads opened its doors to students so that they can study there. They also have access to free Wi-Fi at the church.

Morné Reinders, speaking on behalf of Balwin properties, said outages were caused by ongoing cable theft, illegal connections and criminal activity during load-shedding.

Reinders said Balwin earlier this year instructed their attorneys to send a letter of demand to the municipality for the metro to take the necessary steps to prevent outages, illegal connections and thefts.

“Despite these measures, cable theft and outages continue. We have instructed our attorneys to address another legal letter to the City concerning the ongoing outages and cable theft,” he said.

While cable theft continues, Reinders said Balwin deployed private security to patrol the area.

“These initiatives are at great cost to ourselves and not passed on to our clients. The criminals have now reverted to stealing equipment and cables on the poles where overhead cables enter the ground. We are awaiting the City’s approval to take remedial action that will prevent this.”

Reinders said the company was currently piloting the implementation of hybrid power solutions that should allow the use of essential devices up to stage 4 load-shedding.

“A site meeting on November 18 with City representatives was held at our behest to urgently address the matter. We are awaiting the City’s commitment in this regard.

“Although the impacted areas are not under our control, additional security will be deployed and overgrown vegetation removed at our cost.”

Ward councillor Malcolm de Klerk said the TMPD cable theft unit met with the Lakes security forum, private security and estate managers on Friday after a cable theft on the N4 gateway.

He said there will be a dramatic increase in security measures at the identified hotspots.

“The City of Tshwane will ensure that grass and vegetation are cut to decrease hiding spots for the criminals committing these acts.”

The Tshwane metro did not comment at the time of going to press.

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