By Nikashini Naidoo
It was a cold and dark Father’s Day for residents in Crossmoor and Shallcross following sporadic water and electricity outages that lasted for more than two days.
The disgruntled residents took to the streets to voice their frustrations over water and electricity outages on Sunday night.
Razina Hoosen, a resident and the Vice Chairperson of Crossmoor Community Policing Forum (CPF) said that while protests that damage infrastructure is not acceptable, she understands residents’ frustrations.
“We cannot condone damages onto infrastructure during protests but if we look at the crux of the issue, the residents’ confusion and frustrations are valid,” she said.
Hoosen said that at a previous placard demonstration two weeks ago, residents felt disheartened after the demonstration did not get the desired effect.
“Residents held a demonstration but were disheartened that they could not get the desired response since it was dark and nobody could see them protesting. Besides motorists, the residents felt defeated and opted to burn fires to at least garner some attention to the lack of service deliver,” she said.
Hoosen said that 13 roads within their ward are having one common issue that has sparked frustrations.
She said: “When we face an outage, be it electricity or water, the process is a simple one log the fault, get a reference number and report it to our councillor to escalate the matter. How can we report the matter when we do not have an active councillor? We fall under ward 71 headed by Councillor Khwela but we are yet to interact with him or get any kind of information or response regarding service delivery.”
Hoosen also said that residents seem to feel marginalised.
“All we want is accurate and timeous information to be provided to us in times like these. It is unfair for us to depend on other councillors and PR councillors for assistance. The lack of information for long time periods create a build-up of emotions which often get vented out in unhealthy manners by residents, but it is understandable as we are left in the dark, literally, with light at the end of our tunnels,” she said.
Pastor Selvan Govender said that residents were frustrated that they had to stay without electricity for two days.
He said: “They made many attempts to engage the councillor but they had no response. The community was not informed about what the reasons were for them not having electricity and they were literally left in the dark. Residents needed answers as to the duration but unfortunately no one addressed them regarding the issue. They took to the streets in protest in a unified manner and maintained peace.”
Govender said that as the IFP, they engaged MPL Les Govender who addressed the community telephonically, heard their appeal and then wrote to their eThekweni Exco member Cllr Mdu Nkosi and he forwarded messages to the HOD and the Mayor.
“What is upsetting is this is not a onetime occurrence but a regular one and there are no leaders that filter accurate information to the community,” he said.
Lucy Naicker a Shallcross resident that has also been affected by the outages said that they pay their water and lights bill every month in full but for most months, they do not have one or the other or both at the same time.
“We have small kids and not to have water for a week cause a very bad situation for us. Just down the road at the Link Road they have water and lights every day because the municipality are scared of protesting. Looks like we need to start too,” she said.
