‘Eight Days in the Dark’: Tshwane Woman Battles City to Restore Power

One household, 60 calls, 8 days, and thousands spent, when basic services fail, ordinary citizens pay the price.

For Rietondale resident Corne Marx, the fight to switch her lights back on turned into a costly and emotionally draining week-long battle with the City of Tshwane. In what should have been a routine repair, Marx ended up logging more than 60 calls, sending over 20 emails, and spending R4,000 in generator fuel before technicians finally arrived to properly fix a fault with her home’s electricity supply.

Her voice, both weary and determined, speaks volumes:

“After eight days, my 82-year-old mother and 77-year-old husband could finally take a hot bath without me boiling water on the gas stove.”

A Problem That Should’ve Taken 20 Minutes

What was the root cause of the outage?
A loose wire and a bit of insulation tape.

Yes, really.

It began on a Tuesday, when Marx’s power tripped unexpectedly. She reported the issue immediately. But what followed was a Kafkaesque spiral of disconnected departments, unanswered calls, broken promises, and technicians who showed up, “fixed” the issue, and left, only for the power to trip again minutes later.

“I even made them coffee and asked if they could wait just 15 minutes,” she recalls. “But before they were even out of the street, the power went off again.”

Despite being a single-household fault, it took eight days to properly diagnose and repair.

The Human Cost of Municipal Neglect

Over the week, Marx burned through thousands of rands in petrol just to run the geyser for her elderly parents.

“We spent about R3,500 just on petrol,” she said. “We were living off the grid in the capital city—not because of load shedding, but because no one would take accountability.”

To make matters worse, her mother also phoned the city and waited outside on the pavement after officials claimed they were en route. They never came.

‘Escalated’ Into Thin Air

Marx did everything by the book, logging calls, escalating complaints, sending emails. She even got daily updates from city officials claiming the matter was being “escalated.” But day after day, nothing changed.

Ward councillor Anru Meyer confirmed that this wasn’t an isolated incident.

“A single power interruption can take anywhere from six to 10 days to resolve,” Meyer said, adding that he lodged complaints daily with the city and, like residents, often got no feedback.

The City of Tshwane had not issued a formal response at the time of publication, saying they were still “waiting for the relevant department.”

Where Service Delivery Fails, Residents Suffer

This is not a story about electricity. It’s about the collapse of basic service delivery in South Africa’s administrative capital.

In a city where power cuts are expected due to national load shedding, what hope is there when faults that aren’t part of that grid failure are left unresolved for over a week?

The public’s patience is wearing thin. On social media, stories like Marx’s are not rare, they’re becoming alarmingly common. “Another week, another delay,” wrote one frustrated resident on a Pretoria community group. Others shared their own experiences of being left in the dark while facing similar red tape and indifference.

A Glimpse Into Daily Reality

Corne Marx’s story is deeply personal but tragically relatable. It’s the type of quiet crisis that doesn’t make headlines but represents something bigger, a daily battle for dignity, care, and the right to live with basic comfort in a city that promises more than it delivers.

And while her family now has hot water again, the bigger question remains:

Why does it take a citizen’s relentless pressure to fix what should’ve been handled on day one?

{Source: The Citizen}

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