Ferreira Street residents ‘gatvol’ of blackouts
The very frustrated Van Vuuren said she didn’t know what the issue was with the power outages that were occurring almost daily after 5pm.
THREATS of a colossal mass protest have been made by Turfontein residents who claim they are ‘gatvol’ of the constant blackouts in their area.
“These power outages have become a repetitive thing,” said one of the residents in Ferreira Street, Shannon Griesel, whose partner, Elaine Brown, depends on power supply to keep her alive because she remains on an oxygen machine that requires power.
Griesel said he was terrified of the night when he may lose his beloved. The power going out for a lengthy period would leave Brown without oxygen.
He said it had happened two weeks ago. The power went out for more than 13-hours forcing his partner to use her emergency oxygen canister. He feared the repetitive pattern of blackouts may get worse.
Residents met at Griesel’s residence in Ferreira Street, on Friday, and told the Courier about the nightmare. Paula van Vuuren said she had lost almost everything because of unannounced power outages. She claims she lost her husband, who was also on an oxygen mask, two years ago. She added that her hair salon, which needed power to operate, was forced to shut down because of the outages.
“Clients would arrive to find we could not help them because we had no power.”
The very frustrated Van Vuuren said she didn’t know what the issue was with the power outages that were occurring almost daily after 5pm.
“We don’t know if we will eat a warm meal or not. Food gets spoiled. We pay for electricity but still have to buy candles just to get by,” said Van Vuuren.
The residents all agreed the outages only occurred in Ferreira Street and that the next block was constantly lit. They claimed the power outages somehow ‘rotated’ among households – three or four houses would have lights while the others were left in darkness. They said they had used thousands of rands in airtime to phone City Power to lodge their complaints. Apparently, they only receive reference numbers. Immediate action was not forthcoming.
“Children are upset and often have to study by candlelight due to the persistent power failures. A neighbor’s son was almost burnt by a candle as he was on the phone attempting to assist his mother to contact City Power during an outage. His jacket caught fire at the back,” said the frustrated group of residents.
City Power issued a response indicating that the combination of cable theft and overloading were the cause of outages that were currently affecting residents in Ferreira Street.
Spokesperson Virgil James said the load centres between High and Hay streets had been overloaded because an increased number of backyard dwellings had connected to the grid illegally or had bypassed the meters.
“What has made the situation worse is that there was cable theft in Bishop Street that caused one of our mini substations to burn. City Power had to supply customers in Bishop Street with electricity from the Hay and High street load centres, which exacerbated the overloading between those streets and resulted in repeated outages.
“City Power has since begun with the trenching in order to lay new cables. Old cables which have developed multiple faults emanating from the strain of overloading, will be replaced,” James said, adding that the process of replacing cables was expected to be finished on Thursday night.
“Thereafter, all customers in this area will be connected and the problem will be resolved,” he stated.
He also said City Power would like to apologise to the people of Turffontein for the inconveniences these outages caused.
He asked residents to report cable theft to the following numbers: 011 490 7504 or 011 490 7911 or 011 490 7553 or 011 490 7900.
He added that illegal connections can be reported anonymously on 0800 002 587
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