While most people are battling the effects of loadshedding, the Bisholo family in Nyanga is having a different struggle.
They have been left in permanent darkness after thieves vandalised and stole electrical cables to their home.
Crosby Bisholo, of Bush Street in White City, says they are struggling after the power cables to his house were stolen on Friday 9 September. “The cable was stolen just after 02:00 on Friday morning during loadshedding,” says Bisholo. “When we went to sleep on Thursday night there was electricity in the house”.
However, when they woke up in the morning the power was off and their wheelie bin was also missing
Bisholo says when he woke up in the morning he switched on the lights, but nothing happened. He thought there was still a loadshedding.
“When I looked through the window the street lights were on. When I went out I noticed that the lights were on at my neighbour’s house and also at Nyanga Stadium. I was so confused. I returned inside and switched on the lights again, but they were not working,” he states.
He noticed later that the cable and the outside electric box were stolen.
The incident has left the family in limbo and rotting food. The family is using candles to light and a paraffin stove to cook. “The meat and other things that were in the fridge are all damaged. We are now living in the dark. I reported the case to the ward councillor and he came to see it and promised to inform the City,” he explains.
Bisholo believes the perpetrators know him well.
“I suspect the people who did this are the ones who are smoking drugs in the area. It can’t be someone from outside. It’s someone who knows me,” he says.
Ward 37 councillor Sandile Martin says he reported the matter to the City officials.
According to him, it’s not the first time a similar incident happened in the ward.
“This is the third house that has been robbed of the cables. This thing of cable theft is becoming a challenge now. The robots at the corner of Sithandathu Avenue and Zwelitsha Drive are not functioning because the criminals that stole the cables,” he says, adding that load shedding is making it difficult to monitor the situation.