This comes after Centlec spokesperson, Lele Mamathu, said the system has been offline after a power failure in the city on Sunday, which prevents residents from buying electricity tokens online or at outlets. The areas affected are Mangaung Metro, Mohokare Local Municipality in the Xhariep District and Mantsopa Local Municipality in the Thabo Mofutsanyana District in the eastern Free State.

An OFM News reporter spoke to several aggravated residents.

“It is very bad, because there are more expenses. When the electricity is off, we have to spend more to buy paraffin. Some of us do not have paraffin stoves. Our food is also becoming rotten,” says Patricia Pitso, a Bloemfontein resident that has been without electricity since Sunday.

Supervisor at the Bays Village Spar in Bloemfontein, Cecilia Coetzee, says customers have been phoning the whole morning to ask when the system will be available again.

“We keep getting calls and all we can tell customers is that we do not know, because Centlec said yesterday [prepaid] electricity would be [available] within 24 hours and we are still without it. Customers are angry because they have to buy take-aways and are wasting unnecessary money. My colleagues are also affected. The one lady has a baby, and now the baby must bath in cold water. It also makes it very difficult to feed the child because there is no electricity,” says Coetzee.

Charlotte Rouls, an employee at Engen by Northridge Mall in Bloemfontein, says people in the area are also upset because they have been without electricity since Sunday.

“People cannot cook or charge their phones,” says Rouls.

“It is frustrating to be without electricity, because we are so used to it. In the morning we have to bath in cold water and that is not nice. How do we live without electricity? People need to make food, and now we are forced to buy take-aways. It becomes unaffordable,” says Esther Monethi, a resident from Bloemfontein.

Mamathu Centlec urges affected people to use their electricity sparingly until the problem is resolved. He also says any allegations concerning Eskom are untrue.

“There are allegations going around that we [Centlec] are owing Eskom. No, we do not owe Eskom a cent. This is just a pure system failure that happened, and we are working to get it resolved,” says Mamathu.

For enquiries, people can call Centlec’s 24 hour Call Centre at 082-295-5481 or 079-745-1700.

OFM News