Durban – Last night was the fourth night in a row that some residents in the suburb of Manor Gardens in Durban went to bed without electricity.
I first wrote about this on Tuesday morning after the suburb including parts of Glenwood were hit by a power outage on Sunday night. The power to the majority of the area had been restored at about 10.30am on Tuesday morning – my home included – but after a round of scheduled load shedding that same day from 2pm – 4pm, my home and about 14 others in the neighbourhood did not have the power restored when the load shedding ended.
What we have discovered as we battled the bureaucracy of the municipality to have our power restored, is the shambles plaguing the eThekwini electricity department that has wider implications for all Durban ratepayers – as the festive season approaches.
The eThekwini Municipality, in an effort to clamp down on rampant overtime claims by contractors and employees of the city has stopped paying for overtime in the electricity department.
This means, according to various sources, that any electrical fault logged after hours will not be attended.
An increase of load shedding in recent weeks to Stage 6 has seen a spike in electricity faults logged with the city as the electrical infrastructure was not built to handle the constant outages.
This means that areas are often plunged into darkness due to “tripping” as the start-up load on a transformer may be greater than the network’s capacity – tripping the circuit.
This is what happened in my suburb on Tuesday, which caused a fuse to blow in the transformer plunging over a dozen homes back into darkness.
Those affected immediately began logging faults with the municipality via its WhatsApp line – which at the best of times does not give a reference number. Many of us had given up trying to call the call centre. One is more likely to win the lotto than get through to a person on that line.
And because it was the evening, we had also entered “overtime”, time which meant the fault would not be seen to. We were forced to go to bed without electricity for the third night in a row.
The next day we were again on the phones, on the WhatsApp lines and sending emails for someone to help.
Help came at 5.20pm on Wednesday when an electricity contractor called me to confirm my address. A sense of relief fell over all of us.
Like many of my neighbours, I had earlier in the day, thrown away food that had gone off because the fridge was thawed and spent the day at a relative’s house charging cellphones, laptops and load shedding lights.
Our lives without electricity for three days in a row was in turmoil.
When the electricity contractors arrived they were able to locate the transformer and discovered that the fuse had blown. According to Janus Horn, the chairperson of the Manor Gardens Ratepayers Association who was on scene with the contractors, it took less than 5 minutes to repair. When the lights came on we jumped for joy in our home.
But our joy was short-lived. A mere 30 minutes later the lights went out again. Again it was the 15 homes affected.
“The fuse must have blown again,” Horn said on the WhatsApp group.
I immediately called the contractors back on the same number they called me on and they were shocked to hear it had gone off again.
“I need to call my controller for them to tell me what to do,” the contractor said.
It was after 6pm on Wednesday and we had now entered “overtime” territory with the municipality.
I called the contractors several times and there was no answer.
A source in the municipality told me that they were not coming back as the city was not going to pay them for overtime.
What is worse, the source added, is that some contractors may be dragging their feet or going on a “go-slow” during normal working hours in an effort to increase the backlog of faults and force the municipality to pay them overtime.
“You are in fact lucky this happened now and not over the long weekend. Because if it happened over the long weekend or during the holidays over the festive season, no one will come out to assist,” the source said.
It is an ominous warning to all Durban ratepayers who may have the misfortune to experience an electrical fault on a public holiday, weekend or after hours.
It is now more than 80 hours since my neighbours and I have had uninterrupted power supply to our homes and we are growing anxious if it will be fixed before the start of overtime and the long weekend tomorrow.
* When approached for comment, eThekwini Municipality spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela was incorrectly under the impression that the power had been restored to the 15 homes and may have got old information for the response, despite an email to him clarifying that the issue was for a secondary fault and related to overtime dispute.
In an effort to give the municipality a fair right to respond, IOL will send follow-up questions to the city for clarification.
IOL