Disconnected Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) students residing at Little Manhattan accommodation near Quaqqa shopping center blocked Mhiri street with burning tyres and are violently protesting leading to substation after spending four days without electricity.
They are demanding  power to be restored, students have placed several complaints to the residence supretendents about the current power shortage as they cannot do their school work that requires internet, food going to waste and their electronic devices running out of power, let alone having to bath with cold water when attending classes. They have now decided to take matters into their own since the management team wasn’t responding to the matter and police officers were called to calm the situation.
The residence committee was aware of the struggle students are facing as its pulling them too in the same direction since they have unconventionally provided residents with some firewood for them to cook and gain some energy.
The City of Tshwane’s MEC later then visited the place and warned the students to not protest again as it can lengthen the power deficiency. She assured to look through the matter thoroughly and speed up repairs and students must expect the power back in few hours. This matter went all out to the city of Tshwane’s attention since the medium voltage power interruptions affected the resident due to the radial feeder underground cable fault. The fault location was pinpointed and resources dispatched for excavation as part of the repairs.
“However we haven’t made positive progress due to the waterlogged and muddy ground conditions. The TLB is unable to get to the fault position and manual excavation is impossible due to the ground conditions. Excavation works have been deferred to tomorrow to allow us to explore a route within the servitude that may be accessible for re routing the cables” . Students are still in the dark impatiently waiting for power to be restored, giving the Tshwane municipality a deadline of at least one week to fix the issue or they will strike  again.