Suburban
Diana Nherera Suburban Reporter
Some residents of Mandara are complaining of frequent electricity faults with the problem said to be now a weekly occurrence in certain parts of the suburb.
The residents said the frequent faults were forcing them to spend more money on alternative sources of power and also pose a security threat.
According to the residents, they are having to buy fuel for their generators all the time due to the daily and weekly faults and constantly losing perishable food.
Power utility Zesa’s response time to faults is being queried by the residents, who recently went for almost a month without power.
“Even before these weekly faults, Zesa can take five days or more before they restore power, which becomes so expensive as it means one survives on a generator which is expensive to run and the reality of throwing away food, which also nowadays is expensive,” said a Mandara resident.
Following the violent rains experienced last week on Thursday, several areas of Mandara went for days without power with some of the faults caused by untrimmed tree branches which fell on the power lines.
Several residents complained of lack of power in Banchory, Innerleithen, Gail, Balgowan and Arcturus roads. Residents in the neighbourhood were encouraging each other to inform Zesa if they come across tree branches hanging on power lines and urging neighbours to cut or trim trees before they interfere with power lines.
They are presently contemplating consulting the Zesa area manager to understand what the power utility’s challenges are.
“I reckon 40 to 50 percent of all the Zesa faults that occur in Mandara in a year are due to trees.
“We all know this. But we have errant residents amongst us who still ignore the trees in their yards that are affecting power lines.
“Strictly speaking, our Zesa team should have figured this out and surveyed Mandara taking note of addresses that have trees requiring trimming and launched a campaign to encourage residents to cut trees (house and phone calls etc).
“A concerted campaign over 60 to 90 days would have dealt with all the trees preemptively eliminating half the faults thus cutting down half his (area manager’s) Mandara job cards and likely halving his repair costs.
“This would give him time and some resources to focus on other maintenance work.
“I have witnessed such a campaign in two other suburbs that I have lived in over the past 15 years.
“I stand corrected but I haven’t seen or heard of one in the three years I have been a resident here,” said one resident.
The resident said in the past Zesa used to cut the trees themselves but nowadays, they require residents to do it themselves.
“But tree cutters are not hard to find and are worth the expense.
“The Zesa area manager has a powerful position he is not using – the power to switch off power supplies until trees are cut.
“So he is best placed to run his campaign against errant residents,” added the resident.
Another resident said the faults expose the area to an increase in crime.
“Not to mention the loss of communication, foodstuffs going bad and in the long run, the cost of electricity as all these guys (Zesa workers) doing the work are paid overtime for the extra hours etc),” said the resident.
Other residents said Zesa should cut the trees on its own particularly those already interfering with power lines for safety reasons.
Contacted for comment, Ward 9 Councillor Stewart Mutizwa said the frequent faults are also as a result of a theft of a transformer feeding the area affected.
“Now the replacement is taking too long.
“The rate of crime is on the increase in the whole area and maybe the theft could be connected to the thieves.
“Our parks team will be working in the area to remove all overgrown trees with a possibility of falling anytime.
“Trees next to power lines, Zesa will trim or remove them,” he said.
Cllr Mutizwa said the same happened in the Cleveland Dam area in Greendale where trees fell on the overhead power line but it has since been repaired.
He called on residents to also report any dangerously overgrown trees that they see.
