In Eldorado Park, people hold their breath when the lights go on

Eldorado Park mother Toni Heynes never thought she would need to hit the bush for firewood to prepare a hot meal for her family.

This has been her reality since the township south of Johannesburg was plunged into darkness four weeks ago, just as the Highveld’s biting winter crept in.

Johannesburg power utility City Power said Eldorado Park, like other areas south of the city, has a problem with cable theft which leads to power outages and low voltage. Spokesperson Isaac Mangena said they were dealing “with localised outages” in Eldorado Park which are largely caused by cable theft.

“Our security management team has teamed up with Johannesburg metro police and the police service in policing, patrolling and protecting the electricity network in the area,” Mangena said.

The power outage crippling parts of Eldorado Park started with a substation that caught fire on Good Friday. A week later, just hours after an announcement that power would be restored, a transformer blew up at the substation.

It was during these outages, City Power said, that cable thieves struck and cables were vandalised, which led to further delays.

Heynes’ power supply was off for 11 days after Good Friday on April 15, came back on for two days before going off again, and was finally restored last Sunday.

She is part of a community group which patrols the streets at night to prevent cable theft.

She said though it was dangerous to patrol as cable thieves are often armed, they had no choice as the city was unable to prevent cable theft.

“On one occasion the cable thieves shot at us but our patrols are important to protect our infrastructure.”

Heynes, from Mahala Park, uses the nearby bushy area for firewood.

“We had to chop trees across our road because we had no other choice,” she said.

“When outages come, we don't have money to buy candles or gas every day for 11 days, so we had to run around to get hot water to have a decent bath in the morning.”

Ruweida Mitchell from Eldorado Park’s Ext 8, who buys food in bulk, suffered losses as her meat, fish and vegetables in her fridge went off during the 15 days they had to go without power.

“My meat hamper that lasts me a month is R1,000, so I had to spend extra money,” Mitchell said.

Her family used bricks for a makeshift fire area which they used to prepare food during the two weeks without electricity.

“To make the fire I had to buy bags of firewood, which cost R30 a bag, so we lived off bread most of the time,” Mitchell said.

She said her husband, who starts work early, had to have cold baths at 3am.

“The most difficult thing about the two weeks without electricity was the cold and that we struggled with charging our phones,” Mitchell said.

Mangena said the patrols by the community of Eldorado Park were helping the power utility.

“We have also increased security capacity around most of the hotspots and we have made several arrests since the beginning of the year, most due to the collaborative effort with the communities,” he said.

Mangena said cable theft had been “rampant and brazen” in April, with 135 incidents reported, mainly in the south of Johannesburg. There was also an unprecedented number of arrests, he said.

He said 21 suspects were arrested in one week.

“Among those arrested, nine were arrested in one go by the Eldos community,” Mangena said.

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