Durban — An irate 78-year-old woman who lives in Stanger Heights, near the Stanger Hospital, says she has been left in the dark for more than three days because of prolonged power cuts since Sunday.
The woman, from the area that falls under the KwaDukuza Municipality, said she lived alone and feared for her life as she was constantly left in the dark and could not even charge her phone, which would enable her to make calls if her life was threatened.
“Stanger has become a very crime-ridden place. To have no power for days like this puts my life in danger.
“My food in the fridge is getting rotten. I budget for my groceries, expecting them to last me for a month, and to find myself subjected to such power cuts becomes an added expense that I can ill-afford,” said the woman, asking to remain anonymous for “fear of being victimised by council authorities”.
KwaDukuza Municipality spokesperson Sipho Mkhize said the council dispatched technicians who found a cable fault in the street where the complainant lives and promised that the residents would have power before the end of Tuesday.
Mkhize said the incident might have been an isolated one, “because there have been no reports made to the municipality around the issue”.
“We would like to apologise to the affected residents, but urge them to report all council-related problems a lot earlier. If the municipality was made aware of the blackouts a lot sooner, we would have fixed it already.
He urged the residents to report any service delivery problems they encounter to the council call centre using the WhatsApp number 060 900 3908.
Meanwhile, there has been an outcry from many Durban residents who have been experiencing power outages. Some communities have been without electricity for more than five days, but the problem has persisted and become worse since December.
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