VANDERBIJLPARK. – The community of CW4 in Vanderbijlpark took their frustration to the streets on Monday afternoon as they burned tyres and closed Frikkie Meyer Boulevard with stones in protest against the electricity cut.

The residents claimed that for the past two days they were without electricity after electricity went off in the early hours of Sunday.

Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) Executive Mayor, Gift Moerane came to address the residents.

He promised residents that the municipality is doing everything in its power to fix the damaged cable.

Vanderbijlpark Community Association Chairperson Sthembiso Ngemntu told Sedibeng Ster he went to the municipal offices where he was told that a cable had been damaged in the Miami Sands area.

“We decided to take action after we were told by the people who worked at the site that they are knocking off and this meant that we were going to spend another night without electricity. We called the mayor and he promised us that he would organise a task team to ensure that they fix the cable,” said Ngemntu.

Electricity was re-connected at around 21:00 on Monday but Ngemntu said that there were some houses that were still without electricity on Tuesday. ELM spokerspersons Wandisile Kunene said that the munical electricity department revealed that a contractor working in Miami Sands had accidentally damaged a key cable that supplies electricity to the affected areas.

“The municipality hereby apologises for the power outage to several areas in Vanderbijlpark,” said Gaba.