In the early morning on Monday, Thembisa residents barricaded roads with burning tyres and rocks, bringing traffic to a standstill.
The protest is purportedly against electricity pre-termination notices and disconnections amid changes to the indigent subsidy by the Ekurhuleni municipality.
Harold Nkadimeng from Rabasotho stood among the crowd, illuminated by the flames of burning tyres. He said residents have been raising concerns for months, but nothing has changed.
“We have been patient. We’ve attended meetings and made submissions, but there is no progress,” Nkadimeng said. “We are not protesting because we want to; we are protesting because we are desperate.”
Main roads, including Andrew Maphetho Drive and Rev RTJ Namane Road, are blocked. Taxis were trying to navigate through barricades on the road, and motorists were forced to turn back.
Police are on the scene and monitoring the protest from a distance.
Electricity was disconnected from my household. I have been living with no electricity for a month
— Sinazo Khumalo,resident
“Electricity was disconnected from my household. I have been living with no electricity for a month,” Khumalo said.
Fezile Manzini, another resident who joined the protest, decided to return home out of concern for her safety. “It was very dark and things were getting heated. I was scared it might turn violent,” Manzini said.
The protest has resulted in local businesses closing their operations. Sinazo Khumalo, who described herself as an affected resident, said the situation had become unbearable.
“Electricity was disconnected from my household. I have been living with no electricity for a month,” Khumalo said.
Thembisa community forum chair Lele Lefakane told TimesLIVE that residents were calling for the immediate restoration of electricity to those affected, arguing that access to electricity was a basic right that cannot be withheld from vulnerable households.
The forum is also demanding a “transparent and participatory review” of the municipality’s indigent policy to ensure it reflects the lived realities of residents and does not unfairly exclude struggling households from accessing essential services, she said.
The community wants all existing debts scrapped. “The debts are unjust burdens on households already recognised as indigent. Their removal is necessary to restore trust and justice,” Lefakane said.
She said the mayor of Ekurhuleni had reached out to community leaders on Sunday night and issued a directive that electricity would be restored to residents affected by pre-termination and termination letters by Monday.
“We are waiting for the city manager to go to the customer care centre in Winnie Mandela and issue the directive. He told us he will be there by 8.30am and by 9am all should be well,” Lefakane said.
However, she said the protest would not be called off until officials formally issued the directive and residents could confirm electricity had been restored to affected households.
In July the metro faced protests in Thembisa and had to temporarily backtrack on the imposition of a basic electricity charge of R126.
The City of Ekurhuleni said the purpose of the basic charge was to help the municipality recover the costs associated with distributing electricity, and ongoing repairs and maintenance. It said municipalities across the country had similar charges in place as part of their standard tariff structures. However, the municipality said approved indigent and deemed indigent residential customers received 50kWh of free basic electricity per month and were not required to pay the basic monthly charge.
TimesLIVE
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