Living in the darkness of a broken city

We are at the mercy of ageing infrastructure, corrupt municipal workers and city officials who have lost control over Johannesburg

- Hugo ka Canham

The electricity cable to my house has broken. I know this because four weeks after the power switched off in the last week of April, a truck visited and assessed the cable. They came on the day that my partner called a radio station to complain about living in prolonged darkness.

We were told that the cable had broken at the base of the street pole. Fortunately for everyone, they would not need to dig up the road even as they warned that the cable to the house is old and will need to be replaced at some point.

They repaired the break in the cable, but the lights stayed off because there was something wrong with the meter. They temporarily bypassed the meter and left us with a caution; the power was now on the neutral cable and posed some risk. Instead of darkness, we chose the power we were given. It lasted a week. I write this piece five days into the darkness, on the coldest week of the year so far.

Another call was logged with City Power. Over the past six weeks many calls have been made. The call centre agents eventually respond by picking up the phone and then ignoring us while they continue their conversations. On their system, they count the number of calls received but to them, this is a game. In a landscape of so much unemployment, for them, work is a plaything. When we eventually escalate to a supervisor, promises are made.

But we languish in the dark. Our municipal account has arrived. It is just over R11 000. While the bill has arrived, the power has not. Before the power switched off in the week of Freedom Day, for several weeks, the electricity voltage had been low and only some appliances and lights worked. Touching some taps and shower knobs sent a jolt of shock through the body. And then everything went dark.