Regular power outages in Grove End, Phoenix over the last year have left residents frustrated. Apart from the recent load shedding by Eskom, residents are often left without electricity for days and several times each month. Residents said they were fed up with the infringement on their human rights. They said: “Electricity is our human right”.
Speaking to The Phoenix Tabloid, Ditesh Sooker of Deltagrove Close in Grove End said, the woes of frequent disruptions to their electricity supply began a year ago.
“These constant power outages, which are not only inconvenient but costly, have been going on for far too long and no one seems to care. Every time we report the power outage, we are told that it’s a cable fault which takes 24 to 48 hours to fix, and sometimes days on end to be restored. We are faced with this problem often and nobody seems to have a solution.”
Sooker said that around March last year, he spoke to the ward councillor, Lyndal Singh, hoping to get clarity on the matter. She escalated the problem by emailing the head of the electricity department who has not yet responded to any emails.
“Month after month, there are power outages and each month we pay our rates, taxes and utilities. During this Covid pandemic, our children need to attend school, which means that they have to have a warm bath and keep hygienic but are unable to do so due to the power outages. There are people working from home. Without electricity it is an inconvenience for them. Our jobs, kids education, and health and safety is at stake,” said Sooker.
He added: “The frequency of power outages in the area is totally unacceptable – it doesn’t take one with a degree in rocket science to know that a cable has to be replaced if its constantly breaking. If infrastructure needs to be maintained or replaced, why is the municipality not attending to it? We need this problem to be fixed permanently and not just when there’s a fault as the ongoing cable faults combined with load shedding have become unbearable.”
Another resident, Aswhin Raghubeer said: “This electricity crisis is ridiculous, we have poor people who are battling, people that are ill, and during this Covid-19 pandemic it is not really fair because people need the electricity. We know of people who have newly born babies and they need hot water to bath. We need an urgent intervention in resolving the crisis.” Amy Padayachee said that the power outages in Grove-End are ludicrous. “Apart from people being left in the dark for such a long time, we have poor people who don’t have fridges and their food is going off every day, and not to mention the fact that there are electrical appliances that are getting damaged. Who compensates the poor for these damages.
I’m glad to say that the councillor is always there to assist , when we call her.” Ward 50 Councillor Lyndal Singh said the persistent electricity outages in Phoenix had become frustrating for residents and councillors alike and was a major inconvenience for the community at large. “These outages not only affects the Grove-End area, but Ward 48 and Ward 49 have also been experiencing similar electricity outages. The issues have been ongoing since 2020 and to date nothing has been done and there are no solutions in place. The department needs to have a proper plan in place since the issue over electricity has been a frequent occurrence, especially after load-shedding.
This is already an inconvenience to residents and they should not be inconvenienced any further,” said Cllr Singh. “Residents have been burdened with unnecessary financial issues over spoilt food items. One of the added stresses to the overall situation, is the lack of assistance from the municipal call centre. Residents either cannot get through to an agent or if they do get through it’s after 30-45 minutes of waiting. This is just poor service from eThekwini Municipality to our residents,” added Cllr Singh. She further stated that councillors get slack from residents, due to the inefficiency of the electricity department and a lack of commitment from the departments head of electricity at eThekwini Municipality.
“Officials don’t bother to reply to emails, text or WhatsApp messages. I have written to the Head of the Department many times and received no response. The lack of communication is a blatant disregard for the plight of our people as it would be common courtesy to reply or to acknowledge receipt of my email, but we get no feedback not even from the mayor’s office, despite the matter being escalated to that extent. So, the big question is, what is the department’s long term solution in going forward to fix the failing infrastructure.
People are now fed up of all the excuses and are demanding answers,” said Cllr Singh. Msawakhe Mayisela, eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson said that the Municipality is not aware of abnormally frequent power cuts in the area. “However, the Municipality is aware that there have been frequent power cuts due to cable damage caused by fibre contractors. They often never report municipal cables that get damaged when they work on the ground. This often leads to power restoration taking longer than expected. A team will be sent to investigate and repair the damage.”
