A cold dark winter could be the future for Mamelodi East residents, complaining of continuous power outages in their area this week.

The residents claimed that continuous power failures that have, according to them, been going on for years – especially during the winter season – keep them from cooking in the evening – leaving some with empty stomachs.

A resident from Mamelodi Ext 4, Christina Mangane, said the Tshwane metro seemed unable to fix the problem permanently in Ikageng and Gardens.

“We are always told that these power cuts are caused by overloading. Mamelodi has a lot of informal settlements, but they have never experienced any power cuts. These powers cuts usually start at around 18:00 when everyone is back from work preparing dinner,” said Mangane.

She said her TV was damaged by these continuous power cuts as it made a strange sound as soon as the lights went off and it never switched on again. She was forced to pay an electrician to get it fixed.

“Our ward councillors in Mamelodi East are working tirelessly at night to make sure that we have lights but what we want is a permanent solution, not temporary solutions. We are paying for municipal services since we are a staying at bond houses.”

Mangane added that she decided to buy a gas stove to avoid throwing away half cooked pap. She said that once the power goes out, there is nothing you can do to save the pap.

Samuel Masemola (22), a student residing in Skierlik in the far East of Mamelodi, said the electricity problem has become a nightmare as it goes out almost every day.

“The continuous power cuts disrupt my daily reading routine and causes lots of stress. We are depending mostly on electricity to focus on our studies and we need electricity to charge our laptops and cellphones to do our school work,” said Masemola. He said he was forced to temporarily move to a friend’s home after he went three weeks without electricity.

A resident from Pienaarspoort, Jack Ndlela, said the metro needed to understand their frustrations.

“It is winter and our children are freezing cold as they prepare to go to school because they have to bath in cold water in the morning. This does not affect school children only – it affects everyone. First, we all need to bathe and cook in the evening and prepare breakfast for children before going to school. We are surviving on takeaway food and it is very expensive,” Ndlela said.

Just two weeks ago, frustrated residents of Mamelodi West Section C3 took it upon themselves to picket outside the Waltloo Electricity Depot (Tshwane Energy and Electricity Business Unit) after spending three weeks without electricity.

The residents claimed a total of 110 households were affected and the matter was reported to the metro. Electricity to Section C3 was later restored the following day.

Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the substations servicing the area currently have three 20MVA transformers. One of these transformers is faulty, and the other two functional transformers (40MVA) cannot currently handle the load between 18:00 and 21:00 due to the current winter season.

“On May 22, the MMC for Utility Services [Frans Boshielo] accompanied by councillors and officials from the city’s Energy and Electricity Business Unit convened a meeting where it was agreed that temporary load reduction between 18:00 to 21:00 will be done until the transformer issue is resolved.

“The purpose of the load reduction is to avoid the tripping of [all] the transformers due to overloading, and affecting the whole area at once.”

He confirmed that a contractor was appointed on May 27 to conduct a full transformer test to determine if the [faulty] transformer is still in a usable condition. This will help inform the metro on a way forward.

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