SO IT WAS, IN THE BEGINNING......
31st August 2005
Mr. Chris Gower,
Ethekwini Electricity
Street Lights
Durban.
Dear Mr. Gower,
re: ONGOING PROBLEMS WITH STREETLIGHTS FITTED WITH HIGHLY TECHNICAL COMPUTERISED ANTI-THEFT DEVICE IN 2004.
I refer you once again to my conversations regarding the above streetlights. I wish it to be recorded that there is still a strong possibility that this device is not compatible with our residential electricity supply and that we are taking interference and erratic surges still.
On occasion we experience visible extreme power dips. Our ISDN line is dropped repeatedly though Telkom assure us that their line checking shows no interference. Our telephone line is at times so filled with static that callers have to redial to make themselves heard.
I must at this point however, refer you back to our three-way conversation including the Anti-Theft device Projects Manager, Mr. Allen Spence.
At some point in the conversation you, Mr. Gower, quite out of the blue, said, and I quote "and so Allen, there are no illegal devices attached to these 2 poles." This remark made some time ago is still one that confuses and worries me. I wish to state categorically that at no time in my previous calls to Mr. Spence, yourself, Rudi Mhlophe or C. Makhoba were the words illegal devices used nor any inference thereto. I wish to question here why that remark was ever made at all. I made a note of it as soon as the call was over as it was so unusual, ensuring that my memory could not be blamed as faulty. My calls to your department were initially to query why the streetlights in Harris Crescent and Jan Smuts were allowed to burn 24/7 at a cost to the ratepayer and any further calls were merely to state that we WERE taking electrical surges and had melted wires to prove this and that we felt that these new attachments to the two street lights mentioned were the possible cause. Illegal? I repeat, no suggestion was Ever made that this device was illegal... Unusual? Yes.. as the reason given by your Projects Manager was the theft of a great deal of cable from outside the Jungle Nursery in Jan Smuts Highway and down almost to Harris Crescent, some time before. I did state that I failed to see why an Anti-theft device to prevent further theft from that area was necessary to be attached to streetlights in Harris Crescent. A particular stretch of road that has Never in all the years we have resided here, had any cable theft? I would also like to remind you that your Project Manager, Mr. Allen Spence, advised us that there were only 2 such Anti-theft devices installed in Durban and that the other one was in the Cato Crest area. If they are only in the testing stage surely it can be argued that not enough tests were run prior to installation and they could well be affecting our house electricity supply?
At this point may I advise you that I do not expect any results from this letter from your Department i.e. the removal of the anti-theft devices, the testing of our elelctricity supply etc. This letter is purely for any possible insurance investigations should a serious accident or fire occur in either No. 6 Harris Crescent or No.8 Harris Crescent.
On Sunday June 26th 2005 at 8.55am we were using the PC when we had a total power cut. I immediately rang the surrounding neighbours on my cell and discovered that only two houses had been affected. Being ours and the one immediately next door No. 6 Harris Crescent. The lady of the house said that she would report the power failure and the power was reinstated midmorning. I called the Faults Number at 5.00pm that same day to enquire as to the cause and was told that a fuse, shared between ourselves and number 6 had blown. As a total layman I must admit that I had not realised we shared individual fuses with neighbours but accept this as something new?
And lastly, this Monday evening 29th August at 6.55pm exactly, the computer monitor switched on unaided as I sat watching the television. It was loud enough to startle me into getting up and going to check out of the window where I found that the streetlight outside Number 6 Harris Crescent had gone out. None of the other streetlights appear to have been affected and certainly My streetlight was burning brightly though I understand that our pole has now been put on a different series which runs up the crescent. The faulty streetlight came back on in minutes.
Again, I would like these observations recorded in the event that a major fault occurs and property/life are damaged it will be possible for Insurers to investigate the matter further. I am fully aware of the fine print on documents issued by the Electricity Dept. to the effect that the Department is Not liable for damage occurring to private residences in the event of power failures. However, as this anti-theft device is not a standard installation and I repeat, according to your Projects Manager, Mr. Allen Spence, only one of two in the greater Durban area, I feel it safer to record my concerns in writing.
Yours sincerely,
J. Lovejoy.
"corrupt power will inevitably annihilate itself"
that was Fun & Games with the Ethekwini Electricity Dept. Part 1.
and today being Thursday 26th October now 2006:
This morning I go to check for typos on yesterdays blog ... time was about 4.35am and whoa!!! I get repeated Internal Server Error 500. Heheh.... Control is Everything not so? I was allowed to access my blog without problems after 6.00pm. *beams at Captain Courageous....
the streetlights which had miraculously behaved perfectly normally yesterday were today, once again in a confused state. They remained ON ALL day .....
and to my Captain I ask this..... Eugene? Shakoor? Surely not!!!!!! *rolls eyes.......
---oOo---
Thursday 26th October 2006 at 6.45pm
