This afternoon, just in time to prepare dinner (of course), the power in my flat went off. This caused slightly more running around than usual, since the person who usually has the keys to the trip switches was away....but at least it's not winter, when power cuts mean freezing in the dark.
In the end, a call to City Power was needed. On the whole, service from City Power is impressive. I may not like having to call a "customer care center" when I have a power cut, but they sent a vehicle around in about an hour. Everyone was efficient and professional; after checking our meters and establishing the source of the problem was outside the building, we had lights back on in about half an hour.
I spent that half an hour watching the rain, and chatting on the stoep to the head of the neighborhood community policing forum. Knowing nothing about electricity, I asked him why our building is on two different grids (power to the whole building never goes off, it's always either to units 3, 6, 7 and 9, or the rest of the flats). This seems odd, and one grid definitely has a more stable power supply than the other. He couldn't explain to me why our building would be on two grids (though, it's quite convenient that someone in the building usually has power), but he *did* point out that the reason my flat experienced more cuts than the other half of the building was because of the illegal hookups of the building across the street.
I don't generally have a problem with illegal hookups - power costs a fortune, and in a rare failure of the South African justice system, there seems to be a lot of hesitation around considering most public services human rights....this whole gray 'progressive realisation' area. Particularly in this part of town, most buildings that have illegal hookups already have several layers of quasi-informal tenancy, ranging from spaces that are slum-lorded to those that are permanently squatted. Illegal hookups are obviously a small part of a much larger picture, and I'm pretty sure the neighborhood isn't going to benefit by making sure the guys across the street don't have power.
That said, if it's a chronic problem throughout the winter (as it was last year), it will become quite obnoxious; if I don't want to report them, what can I do? See about lending them a good electrician? Try to get on a first name basis with the City Power crew, since I'll be calling them out on a weekly basis? Look for a place to live that has natural gas?
In the end, a call to City Power was needed. On the whole, service from City Power is impressive. I may not like having to call a "customer care center" when I have a power cut, but they sent a vehicle around in about an hour. Everyone was efficient and professional; after checking our meters and establishing the source of the problem was outside the building, we had lights back on in about half an hour.
I spent that half an hour watching the rain, and chatting on the stoep to the head of the neighborhood community policing forum. Knowing nothing about electricity, I asked him why our building is on two different grids (power to the whole building never goes off, it's always either to units 3, 6, 7 and 9, or the rest of the flats). This seems odd, and one grid definitely has a more stable power supply than the other. He couldn't explain to me why our building would be on two grids (though, it's quite convenient that someone in the building usually has power), but he *did* point out that the reason my flat experienced more cuts than the other half of the building was because of the illegal hookups of the building across the street.
I don't generally have a problem with illegal hookups - power costs a fortune, and in a rare failure of the South African justice system, there seems to be a lot of hesitation around considering most public services human rights....this whole gray 'progressive realisation' area. Particularly in this part of town, most buildings that have illegal hookups already have several layers of quasi-informal tenancy, ranging from spaces that are slum-lorded to those that are permanently squatted. Illegal hookups are obviously a small part of a much larger picture, and I'm pretty sure the neighborhood isn't going to benefit by making sure the guys across the street don't have power.
That said, if it's a chronic problem throughout the winter (as it was last year), it will become quite obnoxious; if I don't want to report them, what can I do? See about lending them a good electrician? Try to get on a first name basis with the City Power crew, since I'll be calling them out on a weekly basis? Look for a place to live that has natural gas?
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