Residents, businesses angry - two weeks of darkness in Joburg's CBD

A Johannesburg resident had to pack up her life and find temporary accommodation after a major power outage hit the city centre a week ago.

“It’s been a week since I left my place; I had to find a temporary place in Brixton. I spend more on transport now because it’s far as compared to my place in town. I even use Uber because I knock off quite late‚" said Chriselda Kekana who is one of hundreds of Joburg residents left without power for more than a week.

“I don’t have family around where I can just rock up and sleep. This is such an inconvenience. If it was just electricity then I would have made it‚ but I can’t survive not having water too‚” said Kekana‚ who lives at Lofts@66 on Pritchard Street.

Kekana said the power outage has lead to numerous unexpected expenses.

“If I was home I would have cooked‚ now I have to buy lunch. I felt very helpless because there is nothing I can do really. When I left I had to take my food out of the fridge and go away with it. What’s more frustrating is that no one was saying anything and buildings like the High Court close to us had their electricity restored on time. They were prioritised‚” Kekana said.

Large sections of the inner city were plunged into darkness the Sunday before last owing to a fire in an underground tunnel caused by cable theft.

Some shops have closed their doors for the time being while others operate with loud generators.

A property management agent told TimesLIVE that the outage has frustrated residents in the buildings he works in.

“It’s bad; some people don’t even go to work. Most of them had to find other places to go stay in. People are unhappy‚ there is no water plus electricity for a long time. It’s not nice‚” said Mike Josiah‚ a property agent.

“Even for me it’s not nice‚ I don’t have water but at least I don’t travel to work so I still work. Nothing is being communicated with us‚ we don’t know when things will get back to normal‚ I don’t know. Imagine not having water and electricity for more than two days‚ it’s horrible‚” Josiah added.

Parts of the CBD have been without electricity for more than a week and on Monday residents took to social media to vent their frustrations.

Most of them were complaining that their food was rotten and that they have had to survive on takeaways and ask friends to accommodate them.

Increased traffic‚ theft‚ long queues at ATMs and rotten food are some of the challenges city centre residents and businesses have had to deal with.

Businesses are generating less revenue by the day.

Vusi Vilakazi‚ a manager of a clothing store on the corner of Bree and Small streets said they had been experiencing an increase in crime since the start of the power outage.

"We are losing business big time. Less and less people come to town because not even ATMs work‚ so basically there is less money.

“We use 30 litres of petrol a day on the generator and it doesn't even last until the next day.

“The business had to hire an extra security guard‚ you see‚ this is because thieves are taking advantage of the lights being out.

“It's hard to see what's what. We are losing business. And we have all these extra business costs‚ but we can't afford to shut down. We still open on weekends. As I talk to you‚ we are arranging for transport to take some of the stock to our other shop in Pretoria‚” said Vilakazi.

MD Ismail‚ a supermarket owner‚ told TimesLIVE that he has suffered a loss of R28‚000 after having to throw away the fish he is selling.

"It’s very quiet; people don't come in as much. I do sell other foods but the one thing that I depend on‚ fish‚ got rotten and I had to throw it away. There is nothing I can do or say‚ I am losing money‚" said Ismail.

TimesLIVE noticed that the shop’s cold drink fridge was pitch black.

Most stores had only one light one‚ while others had no lights at all‚ forcing shop owners and staff to be more alert because of the increased risk of shoplifting.

City Power apologised for the “inconvenience” and on Monday morning said power is expected to be restored by Monday evening or Tuesday morning.

City Power spokesperson Sol Masolo said the power outage was caused by an attempted cable theft in underground tunnels.

“In causing the outage the cable thieves burned the cables in the tunnels causing power to trip. The would-be thieves then cut into the cables and stole parts of it while the remaining part of the cables burned and could no longer be used for the purpose of power supply to customers.

“The length of the tunnel in which our teams work is 9km in length and is narrow making it difficult for our technicians to work in.”

He said since Saturday afternoon‚ officials had managed to restore 40% of the power supply.

“Our teams have continued to work day and night and are on track to re-connect some of the remaining areas between today and tomorrow evening.

“At the present moment we are testing all the newly-installed equipment and cables before any switch on can take place. The business within the city centre has been affected by this power interruption‚” Masolo said.