Electricity drives the gears of our nation and without it, businesses can neither operate nor survive. A two-week power outage in Honeydew has left business owners reeling – and in some cases, battling to pay the rent.
“We started to lose customers because we were unable to use our machinery. The rent had to be paid and we did not even make enough money to cover it,” Rob Marussi, owns a steel and metal works company in Boundary Road, told Northsider.
The lights went out on 10 March as the result of cable theft, forcing businesses in the area to make use of generators to run their computers.
Heavy machinery lay dormant as the days passed, while business owners armed with reference numbers waited for City Power to address the problem. Supply was finally restored on 24 March.
While Ward 96 councillor Matome Mafokwane admittes that cable theft is beyond City Power’s control, he accused the entity of not doing enough to keep the businesses in his ward in business.
“It’s an ongoing crime that City Power tries to fight but they fall short every time,”Mafokwane said. He believes the entity underplays the severity of the situation.
“These criminals do not operate like normal criminals; It’s a form organised crime that the police and City Power struggle to get under control.”
When approached for comment, City Power kept mum and is yet to respond to questions posed by Northsider.
The entity did shed light on its plans to fight cable theft earlier in the year, however.
Some of the measures that have been implemented include a response vehicle which patrols high risk areas [based on theft and vandalism statistics], a working agreement with metro police to act as City Power’s eyes and ears on the ground and replacing aged infrastructure with aluminium conductors, which are of no value to copper thieves.
