Cape Town – “We have thrown away about R3k in fridge and freezer groceries and in these times that is really hectic,” says Noori Ismail, a Foresthaven resident in Phoenix.
They have currently been without electricity for five days, because areas around the City of Ethekwini have beqen experiencing heavy load shedding.
Ismail, a mother and wife, says that electricity went off normally as per the load shedding schedule. But on Monday they realised almost the whole area of Foresthaven in Phoenix had been without power for five solid days.
Ismail says that they had informed or alerted the eThekwini Municipality about the problem in their area, but the they haven’t received any feedback from them. They have no idea as to when things would be fixed – it has just been silence from council.
She says that as the result of the problem, they had thrown away about R3K in fridge and freezer groceries, adding that in these times, that was really hectic.
She says her husband is a driver, who works night shift, driving hazardous chemicals. He isn’t able to sleep properly during the day, because of the heat and they can't cool their room adequately, because they have no power.
“When it is time to drag himself up to go to his shift, he hardly has a choice in food because we can't keep anything. He can't even have a warm shower to freshen up for his shift.”
She said that this power blackout had also come at a time when they were also having to adjust to water shedding in around the City of eThekwini. As the Muslim community, they cannot afford to go for days without having access to water.
"His elderly mom lives with us and she is not well. All this extra stress is really making her health worse,” Ismail said.
The City has since issued a statement and to say it was aware of multiple power outages affecting several areas in eThekwini.
"These outages are due to load shedding and the extreme heat that is placing a burden on electricity infrastructure.
"Despite being inundated by reports of faults, the City’s technicians are working hard to restore power and ease current pressure on the network," it added.
Meanwhile, the City also that it is aware that the load shedding and heat placed an extra burden on the electricity infrastructure.
City claims that the overload trips after load shedding are a result of in-rush currents when the power is switched back on.
To minimise overload trips, residents are urged to switch off non-essential appliances during load shedding. These include heaters, aircons, geysers, stoves, and pool pumps. It is advisable to switch on these appliances in 15-minute intervals.
The City understands that prolonged outages has an impact on residents and reassures the public that teams are doing everything in their power to restore supply speedily.
IOL