St Mary’s Children needs your help

Rossettenville’s St Mary’s Children’s is seeking funds to help get an electrician to fix the major circuit break which is broken.

According to Hilario Zimudzi, the home’s assistant director, they hired an electrician who temporarily repaired the MCB and restored power, but the breaker issue could reoccur anytime soon.

“Power was out since the morning of April 16 and we initially thought it was due to load-shedding, but realised that all neighbouring houses had power.

“After realising it was a fault and not load-shedding, we reported it to City Power online on April 17. After reporting, I received no correspondence or phone calls from them. They finally arrived on April 19, after we had made several attempts to resolve the issue through ward councillor Michael Crichton.

“When they arrived, there was a lock that had previously been installed by other City Power technicians when we had a problem. The team that arrived this time stated that the lock was private and that they could not open it.

“They then instructed us to contact them after we opened the lock. To open the lock, we needed a bolt cutter. We called them all day Wednesday after we opened, but they ignored us.

“They only returned on Thursday morning, April 20. They looked and discovered the issue. They then stated that the problem could only be solved by the operator due to their inexperience with such issues. They promised to report to the team leader at City Power so that an operator could be dispatched to fix the problem.

“At 12:30, they left St Mary’s. They returned at 15:30 without an operator. They tried and failed to solve the problem. They waited for an operator for quite some time who did not arrive and left around 16:45 because they said it was their time off.

“On April 21, they returned around 07:00 with another employee, whose title we do not know, and abruptly stated that the major circuit breaker (MCB) that is broken is St Mary’s Children’s Home property, not City Power property. This is even though the MCB is connected before the City Power meter.

“If it was after the City Power meter, we would understand that it’s St Mary’s Children’s Home property.”

Great losses

Zimudzi emphasised that the power issue is affecting them drastically. “We’ve lost food for a month because we had to give it away since it was getting spoiled. We don’t know how we’ll feed the children because, like all charities, we’re struggling financially.

Furthermore, because it has been much colder this week, our children are bathing in cold water and some got sick.

“Moreover, our college and university students need to study and submit assignments online, but their laptop batteries are dead, and they don’t have access to Wi-Fi. We are also unable to work in the office because we cannot access our emails and our phones are not working,” Zimudzi said.

Crichton said he was made aware of the problem and that he had been in contact with City Power since the problem was brought to his attention.

“City Power told me that the locker was preventing them from entering. When I inquired again, they said that the electrician who was working on the issue said that the power had been restored, which is untrue because the home is still without power. Then I was informed that it had to be an internal trip.

“It is concerning because locals in other areas are experiencing the same issue. We are doing everything we can to work with City Power to try and resolve this,” said Chrichton.

Michael Crichton said City Power sent two separate electricians and both confirmed that it is the internal breaker that keeps on tripping.

St Mary’s Children’s Home will have to get a private electrician to fix the problem.

According to Isaac Mangena, a spokesperson for City Power, the issue was a consumer fault after a check with the technical team that went to the premises.

“Due to the nature of the fault, the customer must contact an electrician to assist in resolving the issue because it occurred on a part that our team cannot touch,” said Mangena.

Sonja Harmse, director of St Mary’s Children’s Home, may be contacted on 083 267 3515 should you be able to assist.