On 27 May, frustrated residents of Ext 2 barricaded Link Road with burning tires and heavy stones after enduring four years without electricity. The residents who protested and closed the road are from specific parts of Ext 2, not the entire area.
The protest disrupted access to Stretford Clinic, Eyethu Mall and other local businesses, forcing the closure of the clinic and relocation of patients, including those in the maternity ward.
Many patients, especially those needing monthly medication, had to return home without receiving treatment. Two elderly residents expressed their distress: “We are badly affected by this protest. Closing the clinic is unfair. We need our medication and preventing the clinic from operating is unreasonable.”
Community member Simphiwe told Orange Farm News: “We have been without electricity for four years. Despite paying for a transformer and being on the waiting list, we still haven’t received one. Meanwhile, others with more recent issues have already gotten new transformers. It’s unfair; we just want electricity.”
Eskom Gauteng spokesperson, Ronel Kotze, said: “Eskom has a significant backlog in the replacement of the transformers given the high rate of failure of these critical network equipment and it has a process it follows to replace the failed infrastructure. In essence, before the replacement commences our team of technicians and contractors need to conduct a network audit to determine the extent of the damages on the network and all required equipment and material for the network normalisation. Once a determination has been finalised, the necessary material and equipment such as transformers, mini-substation, meters, cables, etc. are ordered and once received the replacement work would then start. Once the customers that are linked to a particular transformer have reached the 60% threshold only then does the replacement process start.”
