Cape Town - The Everite Hostel community in Brackenfell has been without power since September 22 when the City cut them off over an unpaid R4.5 million bill charged to the owner of the property, who says the electricity meter was installed on the property without his knowledge.
A visit to the hostel on Friday found residents were struggling without power.
Business owner Vuyelwa Mntubu, who used to sell cooldrinks, was using a coal fire to boil water.
She said after the power was cut her business took a dive and she could not even afford gas to cook for herself.
Another resident, Ntomboluntu Jobela, who used to run a spaza, said she could not support herself and was concerned because she could no longer use her fridge to store her medicine.
Nzulu Gona, secretary of the Everite executive committee which represents the residents, said when the power was cut off they all thought it was related to the ongoing load shedding as it happened during the scheduled load shedding period for the area.
However, when the power had still not been reconnected six hours later, they got in touch with the City to ask what was wrong, thinking that perhaps there had been a technical glitch.
Gona said: “The City informed us that they’d cut off the power deliberately because the owner of the land is in arrears worth R4.5 million that needs to be paid before the power could be brought back on again.”
When they consulted Segway, the company that bought the property from previous owners Durobrick in 2020, Segway’s representative Pieter Smith told them that he had discovered that City had installed a meter reader without the consent of the land owner.
Smith emailed the City pleading with it to turn the lights back on while the matter of the arrears and the meter were investigated.
Nothing happened. Gona says the community and Smith had been engaging with the City over the issue, but to no avail.
Reached for comment, Smith said his attorneys were dealing with the City on the matter and as such he did not want to say much. Nonetheless, he did confirm that he had been in talks with the community who said they were happy to pay for the electricity going forward.
The City said it was investigating and would respond, “in detail, in due course”.
The City said: “In general, the City has an open-door policy and residents and businesses are always encouraged to approach the City for assistance.”