Benoni residents gatvol as city blames prolonged outages on illegal mining

Benoni residents are running out of patience after ongoing outages have left them without electricity for days.

Some areas were left in the dark for nearly a week, while others were still waiting for restoration by Sunday morning. Reports indicate that it first blacked out on Saturday 24 January in the early hours of the morning.

A resident told The Citizen that living without power for this long has not only negatively affected her business, which she runs from home, but also every other aspect of her life.

“My family is dependent on electricity; this is the pits, it’s fucking frustrating, and we just do not get answers,” they said.

Meanwhile, the City has attributed the latest major outage to damage on a 132 kV underground cable along Benoni’s Snake Road, linking the failure to illegal mining in the area.

According to the municipality, repeated blasting associated with illegal mining causes ground vibrations that weaken cable joints and insulation, increasing the risk of failure.

Yet, the city’s response differs somewhat from an open letter to EKurhuleni mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza. Ward councillor Loretta Joseph said she was writing on behalf of Benoni residents after a week of prolonged and repeated electricity outages that, in her view, exposed serious failures in service delivery, communication, risk management and oversight.

Joseph set out a timeline for the main outage affecting large parts of Benoni, noting that some areas had also experienced separate outages since 21 January. An attempted cable theft in the early hours of 24 January triggered a major blackout across several wards. Residents were initially given a restoration time of 27 January, but supply only returned briefly and failed again. By 28 January, the city attributed the problem to alleged illegal mining blasting and issued a new restoration estimate. When power was restored on 30 January, it repeatedly tripped and did not remain stable. Electricity failed again that night before gradually returning the following day.

Joseph described the consequences as severe and unacceptable. Residents endured nearly a week or more without stable electricity, leading to food spoilage, business losses and major household disruption. Many households could not cook, charge devices or properly secure their homes. Those dependent on medical equipment were placed at risk, while families struggled with basic needs such as bathing and washing school uniforms. She also noted that the local SAPS offices were left without power, affecting policing and public safety. Throughout the period, she said, city communication was fragmented, overly technical and inconsistent.

Illegal mining weakens cables

Meanwhile Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said illegal mining had also been linked to sinkholes in parts of the metro, including Brakpan, Snake Road and Primrose.

The Boksburg Rondebult sinkholes, still not repaired after four years, were among the first instances of the severity of infrastructure damage caused by illegal mining.

For residents, however, explanations do little to soften the daily reality of living without power, said Benoni ward councillor Mary Goby. She said the outage affected a wide portion of the suburb, with some residents without electricity for well over a week.

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Another resident shared. “Day 8 today, thank heavens I have a good solar system. Our only challenge is hot water; without electricity, my geyser does not heat up. But many people do not have backup power, and we feel so sorry for the people who don’t have solutions,” they said.

‘Clearly the City Manager is incapable of managing a major threat’

A business owner said that they do not understand why the city, the police or the military seemed incapable of stopping illegal miners.

“It is becoming a major problem. We hear them blasting all the time, law enforcement is a joke,” they said.

“Clearly, the City Manager is incapable of managing a major threat to the city.”

Residents have, over the past week, vented their frustration with the municipality on ward councillors, too, said Goby.

“Residents and businesses believe that councillors do not know what it is like living without power, but they do.”

She said even councillors who were not directly affected were fully aware of the hardship through constant communication from residents.

Heavy financial toll

The financial toll is also significant.

“One business alone put in around R80 000 worth of petrol for their generators so they could operate,” Goby said.

Goby raised questions about accountability, asking whether the true cause lay with “failing infrastructure, illegal miners or cable theft” and whether residents would ever get clear answers. She flagged illegal mining as a national problem and questioned what the national government was doing to address it.

Goby also pointed to cable theft and asked what was being done locally to prevent scrapyards from buying stolen metal and how their licences and operating hours were regulated.

She called for better lighting in high-risk areas and questioned the metro’s infrastructure maintenance and financial management.

“Benoni is one of the highest revenue-collecting areas in Ekurhuleni, but where’s our money?” she asked, adding that residents felt let down by multiple spheres of government.

While repair work on the damaged cable is underway, many in Benoni say the bigger issue is no longer a single outage, but a pattern of instability that is eroding trust.

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