To Mayor Randall Williams and the newly elected City of Tshwane municipality,

YOU ARE FAILING US IN THE EAST OF PRETORIA

For the past couple years, the eastern suburbs of Pretoria (namely Garsfontein, Faerie Glen, Moreleta Park, Silver Lakes, Mamelodi, Mooikloof, Wapadrand etc.) have been the victim of unscheduled and frequent power cuts. As citizens we can understand that no infrastructure on Earth is perfect, however as time progressed these power cuts have become all the more frequent, to the point where we are now faced with weekly power cuts. The biggest and most recent of which was of course the fire at Mooikloof substation at the end of last year. A nightmare as that was, we all hoped that the newly equipped substation would also bring an end to the frequent power cuts of the last few years...how wrong we were.

As far as we understand, the eastern suburbs of Pretoria supply the most revenue to the City of Tshwane municipality by means of taxes, utility payments etc, but the question is simply then "for what?". If we are one of the larger financial injections to the city, why are we left to grab at the short end of the stick?

Who is going to pay the hundreds of thousand of Rands of losses we've had to endure over the years when these power cuts happen, in spoilt food and groceries due to fridges not working, theft and crime due to alarms and security systems not working, replacement of appliances that were damaged due to the constant surges when the power goes out and is then eventually restored hours later. The thousands spent in buying generators, fuel for those generators and the like. That's only to mention those of us who are fortunate enough to afford such "luxury", what about those of us who are not in a financial situation to take such steps? Thus I ask you again, who is going to pay for all of that? Some of us work from home, some of us receive terminal care at our homes with machines keeping us alive, all of which require electricity.

We have reached a point where we are anxiously waiting for the power to cut after a rain storm or for an additional 6 hours without power when there is load-shedding. The fact that we even have to consider a thought like that is outright ludicrous. 

We were all rater bemused as citizens when City of Tshwane launched its recent campaign of switching off power to customers who's bills were were in arrears. Pasting videos all over social media, with clever slogans, witty remarks etc, but you can't even keep a steady supply going in some parts of the city for a single week without incident and yet you had the audacity to make threats and statements very clearly to those who do not pay. Well excuse us for not wanting to pay for a service we don't receive in a reasonable manner.

Every time we raise these concerns we are treated like children and just fed the same old excuse. When we ask what is going on when the power cuts, it has gone so far that no matter what answer you give us, it seems like a thinly disguised version of you simply saying "the usual". The fact that you expect us to be happy with that is simply insulting, to the nth degree. Honestly, do you think so little of us? Do you really think so little of those who voted you into your position? We are BEYOND "gatvol". 

If the cause of a given power cut isn't cable theft, it's this or that, it's a switch tripping because of load shedding surges or some technical mumbo-jumbo that no common man on the street can understand, yet the root of the problem - whatever it may be - never seems to be tended to and fixed. It leaves us to wonder as citizens if you truly know what the issues are, because if you do, surely you should take steps and do the necessary to prevent it from happening again, yet it never seems to happen.

We have prayed, we have voted, we have screamed, we have shouted, but nothing seems to ever change. We were promised so much before the election. "Get's things done", was you slogan, yet nothing of note has been done so far. 

Mayor Williams please understand that we have reached our limit, a long time ago in fact. The time for talking and being full of excuses is OVER! We want tangible answers, WE WANT OUR POWER INFRASTRUCTURE FIXED ONCE AND FOR ALL!