WITH the country enjoying more than 10 days of no-load shedding, Braamfontein residents in Joburg have been living in the dark since Monday, 8 April.
This has affected higher learning institutions such as Wits University and colleges around the area.
City Power was unable to reconnect power, citing that it would be able to do that on Friday, 12 April.
But tenants said they were surprised when it was fixed on Thursday, 11 April, but the damage had already been done as students and business owners complained about the cost of the blackout.
Ike Daley, who owns an Internet cafe, said the past three days have been costly.
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“The effects of not having electricity are high as the cost of petrol for the generator to keep computers on is high. My generator ran all day yesterday, and I spent close to R500 on petrol, and it was the same thing the previous day," Ike said.
Student Asande Sibiya criticised City Power's inefficiency, stating that this was a huge blow to many students in Braamfontein.
“They're sleeping on the job, honestly. Forty-eight hours later, a team of electricians can't replace a cable,” said Asanda.
Annoyed Tshegofatso Nokatane said the high number of outages showed that the power utility was running its infrastructure carelessly.
“Addressing 1 038 outages should tell you that you guys run things carelessly and uselessly. Why is it on Friday other places were reconnected? This is unacceptable. We have to write our assignments and our meat is rotting,” said Tshegofatso.
The power utility blamed the outage to stolen cables and an influx of service requests, but assured residents that technicians were working round the clock to restore power.
City Power spokesman Isaac Mangena said: “The outage impacted power supply to customers in Braamfontein, parts of Newtown, Houghton Estate and surrounding areas. Our sincere apologies to the residents for the confusion caused.”
