City Power strike negatively family
BRAMELY - A Bramley Jewish family had a disheartened L'Shanah Tovah also known as the Jewish New Year as their area was just one of the areas affected by a strike involving City Power employees.
Mark Susman and his family had to endure four nights without electricity starting from 3 September as the food was also rotting.
Susman said they lost prepared food worth more than R1 000 due to the lack of electricity in the area and that they were forced to buy unreligious food.
“The electricity went off on the afternoon of Tuesday, 3 September and still today Friday, 6 September, we don’t have electricity because of the unofficial strike and this is sad for us.”
Jewish people commemorated the start of the New Year from 4 September according to the Hebrew calendar and the High Holiday began on the same day at sunset and continued until nightfall on 6 September.
Susman said they had already prepared food for the first night of the New Year but all that went up in smoke.
He said they prepared most religious and popular food traditions to symbolise a sweet new year.
“However we had to buy un-Jewish food, we could not buy Kosher food as we were supposed to because the Jewish shops were closed for our religious holidays.
“We’re saddened by this although we understand the plight of the workers.”
Susman said his family was going through a rough time as they could not even take a shower because there was no hot water.
Susman added that he had to hire a generator to keep his refrigerator in order to save some of the food from spoiling.
“It is costly, as I must buy fuel to keep it running and obviously it cannot supply the whole house and I have to buy prepared food all the time which is expensive, this is ridiculous.”
He added that his family was also worried about their gate as the battery would die which could force them to operate it manually.
“That will pose a security for us.”
In a memo addressed to its staff members, City Power said the strike was an unprotected and illegal one as employees had neither raised a dispute nor tried to negotiate with the employer.
“By virtue of the strike being illegal and unprotected, the company demands the return of all employees to work by no later than 5 September 2013, failing which an urgent application will be launched to the labour court for an interdict against the strike,” it read.
