Just when Laudium residents believed that they were experiencing the height of incompetency carried out by Municipal workers from the ANC-controlled Tshwane Council, residents this week, experienced incompetency at a new and mind boggling level.
This follows residents of 19th Avenue and surrounding areas in Laudium waking up this past Sunday (July 12), without electricity. Despite logging in complaints to the Tshwane Council and reporting the blackout to Cllr Naeem Patel of the ANC, the day passed without electricity being restored. More calls to Cllr Patel and his office did not help. Despite Patel assuring the affected residents that their complaints were escalated and then informing residents that Council workers were attending to the problem, the blackout continued. The following day (Monday) residents were again assured by Patel that Council technicians were on site, at the corner of 19th Ave and Marble Street, with photos even being posted by him thereafter, of a new transformer being installed, as according to Patel the current one had been vandalized. Food kept in fridges started to spoil, residents did not have hot water to bath with or even make a cup of tea, but photos kept on being posted by Patel, assuring residents that Council workers were on the scene. From Sunday, then Monday, then even Tuesday, there was still no electricity, despite Patel claiming that he even spoke to the Acting Director of Electricity in the Council, who was giving the matter his urgent attention. Post after post by Patel followed, claiming that the new transformer had been installed and that the ‘switching team’ was busy doing final checks, before switching on. On Tuesday late afternoon Patel even posted that “the transformer is now stable. The switching team is now on site and WILL commence with the switching and final maintenance procedures.”
However, suddenly on the same Tuesday (July 14), but in the evening came the BOMBSHELL. Patel made a 360 turn, posting, “Unfortunately, the work carried out by the team last night [Monday] was a complete waste, as they installed the [new] transformer incorrectly with the doors facing the wrong direction.” With more promises and posts by Patel, it seemed that both the Council workers and Patel were ‘misleading’ the community as to what actually was the situation with the repairs.
Cllr Prajay Ramjee posted that he was with the repair team the whole night on Monday and that they did not even have a 16mm drill to carry out their job. Meanwhile, the team was clocking in overtime pay, for ‘working’ throughout the night. Electricity was finally restored to the area, yesterday afternoon (Wed, July 15). Mohammed Hassan Ebrahim of 15th Ave, Laudium, said he is highly disturbed by the level of negligence of the Council workers, who installed the new transformer the wrong way. Residents living in the area, who were left without power for four days, expressed frustrations at the unacceptably incompetent and sloppy work carried out by the Council’s repair team and the poor or the misleading response from Cllr Patel.
Mohammed Hassan Ebrahim of 15th Avenue, Laudium, told the Laudium Sun, “The electricity was only restored on Wednesday (July 15) and it went off on the morning of Sunday (July 12). For all those days, we were left completely without power and the situation became very difficult for me and everyone around me. I require oxygen for health reasons and I battled without electricity. I am saying honestly, all the food in our fridge started getting rotten. So I keep asking myself, who is benefitting from this situation? Because for us, there is no benefit at all, only loss after loss. There is no money to keep going back and buying groceries again and again and at the same time the food just keeps getting spoiled. It went on for four long days and after four days, what happens to the meat kept in a freezer not working? There is no choice but to throw it away. I had to throw away meat, milk, and other items that I had just bought. So again I ask, who is losing out? It is us, the people staying in this house. We are the ones losing everything. For pensioners especially, whatever little money they receive is not enough to keep replacing food like this. You simply cannot afford to buy again and that leaves you with nothing to eat. Then you have to stay hungry and that is not right at all. We are all angry with the poor services we are receiving from the Tshwane Council. Residents are already suffering. Money is tight everywhere and now on top of that, we are left without electricity for four days. It is not a small issue. How many people have lost out during this time? Most of us buy groceries for the month and keep perishables in the fridge or freezer, planning properly so that it lasts. It costs money to replace perishables each time the electricity goes off for more than a day and it puts a big hole in our pockets. For many families, that money is already stretched to the limit. This situation just makes things worse for us. It is wrong, completely wrong. What is happening is not right at all and it is the ordinary residents who are paying the price for these problems. I am telling you straight, this is something that needs to be taken seriously because people cannot continue living like this. I am also highly disturbed by the level of negligence of the Council workers who, besides taking so long to attend to the problem, when they eventually did, installed the new transformer the wrong way. We were given assurances by Cllr Patel that the Council workers were attending to the blackout on the first day already, but it now seems that they had no clue what the problem was. Perhaps there was no need to even replace the transformer.”
Sunita Ramjee of Turquoise Street, Laudium, told the Laudium Sun, “This is not acceptable at all to be left without electricity for four days. I am saying this very clearly because the situation we experienced was extremely difficult and stressful for me and my family and everyone living around this area, who were affected by the power outage. The entire area was in complete darkness every night and it created a deep sense of fear. I did not even feel safe inside my own home because crime in Laudium has already become a serious concern. When there is no power, it gives criminals the perfect chance to move around freely and that made me very uncomfortable throughout those nights. I was constantly worried about safety, listening to every sound outside and thinking about what could happen. Living like that for several nights is not something anyone should go through. It is not just about inconvenience, it is about security and peace of mind, which we were completely deprived of during this time. I feel that no community should ever be placed in such a vulnerable position. On top of that, I also faced losses inside my home. All the perishables I had stored were spoiled. I had to throw away everything that I had carefully planned and bought to last. It is not easy to just replace those items, especially when times are already tough. I am not the only one facing this problem. Many households in this area went through the same thing. It becomes a financial burden because now you must start from zero again and that is not something everyone can manage easily. What makes this whole situation even more shocking to me is the reason behind why we had no electricity for four days. I heard that the delay happened because the new transformer was installed in the wrong direction by the Council workers who were called out to fix the issue. I honestly could not believe what I was hearing. Something so basic went wrong and because of that, an entire community had to suffer for days. It sounds unreal, almost like something you would laugh about, but for us it was a very serious matter. I am saying this openly, it feels like a joke, but unfortunately it is a reality we had to live through. It raises serious questions about the level of care and responsibility of the authorities, when work is done in our area. We rely on these services and when things go wrong like this, it affects us directly in every possible way. This kind of incompetence by the Tshwane Council is unacceptable. There needs to be accountability and we need professional people to attend to repairs. Electricity can become life threatening if not connected properly, thus someone could even be killed, if proper attention to detail is not carried out. Residents deserve better service and proper handling of such important infrastructure. We cannot continue to suffer because of avoidable errors. I am saying this with full frustration. This is not right at all and the politicians should be held accountable as at the end, they are hiring the people to manage and run the affairs of the Council.”
area was in complete darkness for nights and
this created a deep sense of fear.
Firoz Aboobaker Varind, the owner of Bakers Oven on 13th Avenue, Laudium told the Laudium Sun, “Yes, running my business without power for several days was challenging. I feel the real issue came from the Council workers who handled the repair. A serious blunder was made during the process and that is what caused the delay, but at least the problem has now been sorted out. I had to manage carefully during that period, especially with operations at my bakery, because everything depends on proper functioning equipment. It was not easy, but I tried to make the best of the situation and keep things going as much as possible. I know other areas were affected more severely and went through longer outages, so in a way I consider us fortunate compared to others who faced even greater challenges. Going forward, I just hope more care is taken so that such situations do not happen again and businesses as well as households are not disrupted like this.”
