Persistent power outages interrupt Moot residents’ lives
People are tired of having to pay random extra costs every week caused by the constant power outages.
Residents of Moregloed and Queenswood are enduring another round of power outages, forcing them to continuously live in darkness.
Parts of the northern suburbs have been hit by persistent outages for the past few months, leaving ratepayers angry.
Residents reported the recent power outage on Saturday, May 3 and said they have not been getting any feedback from the municipality.
Ward 84 councillor Anru Meyer said residents have been without power for over three days now, and there is no tangible information on the metro’s status updates.
“Residents are frustrated over the constant outages because every time power goes off, it takes four to 10 days with no response from the metro.”
He said other areas were getting better attention and feedback, because although it has been several days since the power outage in the area was reported, it still has not been attended to.
“An outage in Waverley, which went off around the same time as Moregloed, was repaired just the next day, which tells me there is poor management of resources as Waverley is the suburb next to Moregloed.”
Meyer added that residents and businesses are facing financial losses due to food spoiling, and some have to use alternative electricity supply such as generators.
Frustrated resident, Frank van der Walt (49), expressed his anger about the outages and said they are causing an interruption in their lives.
“These outages have been happening every week for the past 10 weeks. Washing cannot be done during all the rain and power outages.
“This issue is placing families in financial distress, we are forced to use lots of extra money to buy fuel for generators to try and save food in fridges,” he said.
Van der Walt said they were having sleepless nights over the darkness in their area because it gets “pitch black” at night as the streetlights are not working, even when there is electricity.
He said they might consider moving to another area, as the extra spending every week was unbearable.
“One can only stay calm for so long; we will have to relocate as we cannot keep up with all the extra expenses every week,” he said.
Another resident, Christa van der Westhuizen (49), said the metro needs to step up and fix everything at once and stop patching up the faults.
“My freezer is running down and meat is getting spoiled, and children can’t properly do their homework at candlelight,” she said.
“We have outgrown this problem of having no power almost every week, we need a permanent solution.”
Rekord sent questions to the metro about the power outages, but a response had not been received at the time of publishing.
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