– Naadiya Adams

It’s been a week of turmoil for the Sarang family who buried their youngest son and his wife just days ago – but the time for grieving has been made increasingly difficult.

A visit from City Power on Thursday 17 June ended with the officials being asked to leave the family home where the deceased couple was found.

In an interview with Radio Islam, Yusuf Sarang explained that when City Power first arrived at his door he believed they were there to offer their condolences but instead they made accusations of tampering.

“I’ve been complaining, I’ve been complaining about the problem that we’ve been having but its not only me that’s been having these problems it’s the whole area. Only to find yesterday when they came to visit me, thinking they came to pay their respects, they turned around and said to me I’d done some tampering with the wiring on my electrical box that was probably the cause of this whole incident,” said Sarang.

Initially Sarang had taken the stance to not fight the system as it would not bring back his son, but since City Power’s visit he has decided to take legal advice and has hired his own engineer to investigate the matter.

Sarang detailed the meeting saying that officials showed up at his house uninvited but the discussion started of smoothly as they sympathised with the family. Things took a turn for the worst when the officials spoke about how their investigation – that spanned less than four days – found that there had been tampering with the wiring.

“Nobody investigated it, I can’t understand, I complained for three weeks and nobody came and then one day after the incident suddenly their findings show there was wire tampering. .. Mr Isaac Mangena, the City Power spokesperson, I virtually had to throw him out of my house because he made some uncalled for allegations,” said Sarang.

Sarang made mention of contractors who had come through on Saturday, the night of the incident, and when he began questioning the officials about the sub- contractor, they were extremely evasive and tried to divert the conversation to illegal power connections.

“Prior to Zaheer’s death on Saturday evening, there was a sub-contractor that worked on the DB board, he pulled the main supply wire out, HE tampered with it, we have proof.”

The sub-contractor that came through that evening has raised many eyebrows as City Power officials are seemingly not aware of the visit.

Following the meeting, City POwer announced that they would be cutting the power to the house until the legal requirements for connection have been met.

#CrosbyCouple #Investigation
City Power found that the meter was bridged.
We have also decided to issue the family with a notice to disconnect their power until such time legal requirements for safe connection have been established. #MayfairCouple
Spokesperson Isaac Mangena. pic.twitter.com/fS27IkuDRG

— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) June 17, 2021

Sarang says he will not rest until this matter is resolved.