Frail, forgotten and powerless — these are the tragic sentiments of residents at the Elizabeth Stuurman Old Age Home, which has been without electricity for more than a month.
Not a day goes by without a power outage in Nelson Mandela Bay, but the residents at the Schauderville home have been in the dark since early September.
One of the home’s distribution boards exploded due to faulty wiring and an overload of appliances.
The home is divided into 12 blocks, each of which contains between 10 and 12 flats.
One of the blocks has been powerless for the past five weeks.
Even when there is power, there are only a few working plugs in the block residents can use.
This forces them to move appliances about, from one flat to the next.
The Elizabeth Stuurman home is one of four the municipality has managed since 2016.
The other three are the Adcock, Allan Hendricks and Bethelsdorp old age homes.
The city took over the running of the homes from NGOs after an outcry from the elderly about their living conditions and concerns over their safety.
About 70 elderly people live at Elizabeth Stuurman, but a handful have left due to the power outage.
But it has only got worse since the metro stepped in, residents say.
Deputy mayor and infrastructure and engineering political head Luxolo Namette said he would send comment on the outage but could not be reached later.
Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said electricians would visit the home again.
He said a complaint was received about two weeks ago and was attended to within 24 hours.
“We discovered that the electrical circuit inside the units was overloaded due to the residents connecting extensions to the same distribution box, which causes overloading,” he said.
He said the municipality had advised the residents to refrain from using extensions into one plug.
“The department will again go to educate the elderly regarding safe usage,” he said.
But resident Irene Gallant, 69, denied that the outage was reported two weeks, saying residents had been appealing to the municipality to fix the blown box for more than five weeks.
Apart from the latest outage, she said the power would often trip as plugs were overloaded with appliances in the rooms.
“Since the municipality took over the facility there’s never been any maintenance,” she said.
“One flat only has a single plug which has all the electric appliances connected, which has caused problems,” she said.
She said they were left “suffering” and had to share food as much of their fresh produce rotted.
“Now two or three flats only have electricity, and because some had to throw away food, we have to be assisted by neighbours,” she said.
Muriel Kock, 77, said she had been living at the old age home for about 13 years.
She, too, had to empty her fridge, and was relying on a friend for food.
Other residents have left to stay with family.
The flats also do not have running water and residents are forced to share the few working taps outside their homes.
Margaret Jonas, 79, said she had her last hot bath on Sunday when she visited her sister’s house.
“Our living conditions are hell,” she said.
“They promised development in each block but we still have to share bathrooms and taps.”
A dejected Kock had lost hope that the problems would be solved.
She said after making several complaints, the municipality would send officials to the home but they then left, never to return.
“I am a frail, elderly woman and have no income apart from the social grant. It’s painful throwing away food.”
Kock said every day when she woke up, she hoped someone would rescue her.
“It’s cold, we can’t even make a cup of tea without having to wake up neighbours.
“We are still facing a pandemic and if this carries on we are going to die here,” she said.
Naomi Jenniker, 75, a resident of 10 years, was fed up with the municipality.
“I don’t know how many times they have come to us and made empty promises.
“They use our situation for campaigning but then disappear.”
Her flat has a working plug, but this has be used by other residents.
“We have to assist each other, Covid-19 or no Covid-19.
“But we are going to get killed by our living conditions before the virus [kills us],” she said.
Danny Moss, 73, said: “This situation we found ourselves in is painful.
“We starve sometimes because we cannot cook for ourselves. We even end up fighting.”
HeraldLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.