Download PDFThe issue of loadshedding is a never ending struggle. Loadshedding won’t end anytime soon because in most communities there are many illegal connections. Many of the households that pay for their electricity suffer the most because these illegal connections end up tripping all connections leading to loadshedding for the everyone.
During the festive season, in the community of Daveyton (on the East Rand of Gauteng), the residents who live at Barwa and Tebele Streets have been struggling to access electricity because of the illegal connections of residents. From the 24th to 26th of December 2021, the residents from both streets had electricity power cuts. The residents complained that the electricity went off for a few minutes and then came back on again for almost every hour.
“We struggled a lot during the festive season because of the electricity power cuts, our Christmas was ruined and there was nothing we could do to change the situation,” said Mr Matlala.
“When the power cuts started there was one person who put the electricity back on by going to the danger box. But that wasn’t enough because the electricity continued to come and go,” said Mam Zondi.
“Our electric appliances are getting ruined because of the electricity loadshedding that comes and goes whenever it pleases,” said Kutloano, another resident.
During these power cuts, the elderly people complained. So the youth from Barwa and Tebele Streets decided to organise themselves and protest so that they could be heard. The youth said that they didn’t want old people to go on strike so the ‘2000s’, the youth decided to block the streets with stones and to burn tires.
Simphiwe, one of the youth who was in the protest, called Eskom and told them to come because the electricity issue was out of hand. When Eskom arrived, they checked the danger box and found that the circuit breakers were burnt and no longer working properly. They immediately called for help to get new circuit breakers. After that everything was fixed and the electricity was back to normal.
During the protests of the youth, the Metro Police came and cleaned the streets and removed all the stones from the street.
This article was submitted on 13 January 2022. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
