Not just a water crisis: Power outages spread fear and hamper possible employment

As Joburg residents battle a water crisis, Devi and her neighbours in Rynsoord, Benoni are also fighting to keep the lights on – a struggle that has them fearing for her life and future. Electricity in the area went out for three days last week, resulting in the 22-year-old missing a job interview. Her family threw away almost R2 000 worth of food that spoiled during the heatwave and incurred fridge repair costs due to frequent outages.

Others in neighbouring areas reported five-day-long outages. “My family always says I crashout over not having lights, but, I mean, is it not a reasonable crashout on not having lights, you know? You’re applying for jobs, you’re trying to make your way in the world, but you have no electricity.

“I had an interview the other day, but I didn’t have lights, so I couldn’t make the interview. It’s so unfair,” she toldThe Citizen. Despite the disappointment of a missed employment opportunity, frustration increased when the electricity went out again around 1am on Thursday.

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Following the outage, communication had gone out promising residents that it would be restored shortly, but only returned on Friday. “The communication is abysmal, and you’re relying on these people. It’s not like they’re doing us a favour.

I know it sounds very hectic to say, but if you’re working in public service, if you’re working for communities, you owe them something. You owe them transparency, you owe them honesty.” “Even when you call these call centres, they are not giving you the right information either. We called three times, and each time we were told something different, so it is very unreliable,” she expressed.

These issues are said to have gone back many years, where outages are longer than the suggested time that it would take to complete repairs. “They just say, ‘Oh yeah, we are working on it’, but walk us through the process, explain it to us, we are not electricians, we don’t understand how cables are being laid out.” “That’s what I think a lot of people get frustrated with… so if you’re saying it’s taking eight hours to test, let’s say you start from eight in the morning, by the evening time, why don’t we have lights?”

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