Hillary residents confront eThekwini over service failures

FRUSTRATION and despair echoed through a church in Hillary, south of Durban, last week as residents from Mount Vernon and Memorial Park engaged directly with representatives from the eThekwini Municipality.

- KAREN SINGH

The meeting was called following a severe four-day power outage that left households scrambling for answers amid discontent over chronic electricity and water supply issues.

Memorial Park resident Jasper Cecil expressed the community’s primary concerns — faulty apps that incorrectly mark fault reports as closed, inaccurate communication from official channels and contractor incompetence, which leads to misdiagnoses and residents having to direct technicians.

Cecil highlighted that the app and WhatsApp service repeatedly state “fault is closed” or “file is linked to another fault”, even when power has not been restored. The web app links provided for more information are often faulty.

The only communication channel seems to be through the ward councillor, Samantha Windvogel, who residents believe receives incorrect information from the department.

Cecil recalled the recent four-day outage where technicians failed to restore power.

“One resident had to direct a technician to the fault location on a pole, and another technician refused to inspect the pole, misdiagnosing the problem from a street-level inspection.”

After three days, fed-up residents approached the superintendent, who claimed he had no previous knowledge of the issue and sent his team from the depot.

Cecil described how, five minutes after the technicians ascended the pole, the issue was resolved.

Lamenting the consequences, he stated: “Appliances were faulty, gate and garage motors weren’t working, and many of us had to throw away thousands of rand worth of food because fridges and freezers went off.”

Councillor Windvogel criticised the call centre for incorrectly linking the Memorial Park fault to a separate fault that left about 20 homes without power for four days.