Roodepoort North street entering ninth day of powerlessness

A single street of a larger community is waiting in the dark for solutions.

Residents of 4th Avenue have been without electricity since August 16 when a mini substation servicing their area blew. Residents relay how they heard a loud bang that evening and have since sat in the cold without power. A perceived lack of urgency from City Power coupled with being surrounded by several blocks with functioning sockets brought the community into the streets on August 24 to demand answers.

The residents have bombarded their ward councillor and City Power with messages begging for assistance. In its daily outage report posted on social media, the Roodepoort Service Delivery Centre stated on August 25 that a new mini substation had been ordered but stock was unavailable. The 4th Avenue residents have called for a generator or other temporary solution to be installed but City Power relayed that all generators are currently being utilised.

“It is unacceptable and it is only our short street in the whole of Roodepoort North that has been sitting without power since last week Wednesday. I am sure that they can make a plan but service delivery is non-existent. It is costing us a lot of money so maybe City Power can wake up and do something,” said angry resident Linelle van Antwerpen.

A sample of the affected residents includes an elderly woman who requires oxygen as well as a power source to charge her mobile scooter. Residents are boiling water on gas cookers to have warm water to wash dishes and one resourceful woman glumly joked about having used the bottom of a hot pot to iron her clothes.
Unimpressed with the turnaround time, resident Karen Davids said ‘they [City Power] are waiting while our food is rotting’.