Pretoria – Residents of Mamelodi West, D5 Section have vowed to cause more chaos until their electricity problems are addressed.
The angry residents have been blocking most of the main roads in the area for the past two days.
They say they’ve suffered sporadic power cuts since last week, with some even lasting more than four days.
By yesterday afternoon they were still without power.
About 100 protesters marched up and down the road, demanding that the electricity be restored. They burnt tyres and put large boulders on the roads. Traffic was badly affected in the morning and again in the afternoon.
“We haven’t had electricity since Wednesday, we are very angry,” said one resident who did not want to be named.
“We will continue protesting until they put the lights back on,” said another. “The electricity problem has become a nightmare as it is happening almost every day. We are tired.”
Francina Joe said they were tired of the municipality’s empty promises. “Every day they make excuses on their social media page about their failed promises, while we suffer. They only updated us on their Facebook page, no one came to the ratepayers to explain what the problem was. They keep telling us they are fixing the problem, but we cannot even see where they are working,” she said.
Joe said all they wanted was electricity because the perishable food they had stocked up to avoid going to town often had gone off.
Another resident, Lerato Pitje, said the people of D5 Section were tired of being given the run-around by municipal officials when they visited to enquire about the electricity. “We went to the technical services department and attempted to speak to the municipal manager, but everyone was too busy to see us.
“A few community members went to the municipal offices again on Monday and we did not get an answer, no one would tell us what the problem was and where the cable fault was being fixed. Our being in the streets was the last resort, the people on the street are professionals who are demanding what they pay for and not hooligans.”
Rachel Ditchabe, who was stuck in a taxi, said she was on her way to collect papers for her new job but had to return home because of the blocked road.
The City of Tshwane had yet to comment by publication time.
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