Residents of Stoney Drift took matters into their own hands after illegal electricity connections left them without power all weekend. On Sunday, residents took to the streets and removed the illegal wires themselves. Stoney Drift resident Loretta Bezuidenhout said the electricity first went out on Saturday during scheduled load-shedding, but once load-shedding was over it did not come back on.
After living on the same land for decades and being promised by a previous owner that it would be left to them, members of a family face eviction from their homes. The claimants are pinning their hopes on Buffalo City Metro to institute an intervention, with the property's legal owner threatening to evict a community of “illegal occupants” made up of more than 2,000 households.
Buffalo City Metro has, so far, spent R328m on its electricity and water smart meter projects that started in 2018, while metro customers complain that their billing has only got worse, with many complaining of being massively overcharged. While BCM continues its rollout of the new system, controversy remains about the accuracy of the meters.