South Africa: Joburg Families Plead With City Officials to End Power Cuts

City of Johannesburg losing between R5-million and R10-million monthly due to illegal connections, says City Power

Frequent power outages across parts of Johannesburg are becoming life-threatening for residents like 73-year-old Agnes Dube from Bellevue near Yeoville.

Dube is a pensioner and relies on an oxygen machine because she has a respiratory illness. But unscheduled power cuts have been happening so often in her area that Dube’s oxygen machine is not able to recharge its back-up battery. During these protracted power outages, Dube’s family members have to find transport to rush to someone’s home in another suburb to charge the machine.

Residents we spoke to say the power cuts are unpredictable, and sometimes go off several times a day, or up to three days. This is extremely frustrating and costly for households who cannot afford an alternative power supply like solar. The problems have been ongoing since 2022.

According to community leaders, the area is plagued with many illegal connections from abandoned and hijacked buildings in the area. They say this overstretches local substations, which then results in power failure.

Over the past year, people have protested a number of times over the issue. In February, residents of Bellevue, Yeoville, Upper Houghton, and other areas marched to City Power, demanding “uninterrupted electricity” but nothing changed.

In March, Yeoville Bellevue Civic Movement and Electricity Crisis Committee collected about 1,800 signatures and petitioned the Johannesburg Mayor and the Gauteng Premier to mitigate the impact of these power cuts.

“Soon after submitting the petition, electricity went back to normal for two months, save for the occasional issues with our overloaded substation and transformers. But for the last few months, things worsened with electricity being cut anytime, sometimes for days,” said Nomsa Mbatha from the Yeoville Bellevue Civic Movement and Electricity Crisis Committee.

“These electricity problems are unconstitutional because electricity is a basic human right, which is why we petitioned the City. Our substation should be upgraded to cope with the overload,” Mbatha said.

Bad for business

Traders selling food at the Yeoville market say their businesses are suffering due to the power cuts because they need electricity to cook the food they sell. They say they often have to throw away perishable goods that get spoiled when the refrigerators are off for days.

“The situation with electricity is bad for business. We have engaged with the City to help with backup power, but nothing has worked out,” said Mercy Mokgehle, secretary of the Yeoville Market.

Schools in the area are also suffering.

According to Dhiraj Bharuth, Principal of Sacred Heart College, the school has a generator, but they have had to spend so much money on diesel instead of investing those funds. He said that when the generator is not working, they halt educational activities.

“We are lucky to have a generator, but there are schools that do not have generators at all, and this affects education. Recently, we have had more outages than anywhere else in Johannesburg. The City needs to put heads together to solve the situation,” said Bharuth.

City responds to residents

City officials addressed the community on Tuesday.

During the meeting, community members accused City officials of corruption, and blamed them for not securing infrastructure.

General Manager for City Power in the Inner City, Arsenio Cossa, told the community that illegal connections, theft, vandalism, overloading, and low payment levels remain major challenges in the community.

He said the City is losing between R5-million and R10-million monthly due to cable theft and equipment.

The City promised that it is currently in the process of upgrading the grid by installing cables and transformers and would have the situation under control by September. Residents who were struggling with affordability were encouraged to apply for the Expanded Social Package, which enables people to access free basic services.

Residents said they will continue protesting if they do not see a change soon.