February marred with power outages, metro remains silent

Residents of Ward 27, which includes Northmead, Airfield, Ebotse, Morehill and parts of Rynfield, still have no answers regarding power outages that affected the areas every day during February.

Taking to WhatsApp community groups, residents and business owners vented their frustration and anger, claiming outages accumulated to 11 days.

On February 1, residents reported an outage affecting Rynfield, Ebotse and parts of Morehill.

“Feedback from the CoE’s electricity teams stated cable theft outside the Rynfield substation resulted in the Morehill sub also tripping,” explained Ward 27 Clr Lornette Joseph.

“It was later found the alleged cable theft happened in the Rynfield substation, with no signs of forced entry. Electricity was restored to some areas within 48 hours, while others came on after 70 hours.”

Suburbs in Ward 27 were again without electricity from February 7 until the early hours of February 10.

“This time, equipment failure of a 32kva feeder cable was to blame,” said Joseph.

Following Eskom’s surprise announcement that stage six load-shedding would be implemented from February 22, large-scale outages became a daily occurrence, with areas fed from the B16 grid simply not returning to power.

Referred to as the ‘Bermuda Triangle’, streets between Pretoria Road and O’Reilly Merry Street and Eleventh Avenue and Miles Sharp Street had to bear the brunt of these rolling blackouts.

“Explanations for faults included damage caused by termites in a streetlight in Potgieter Street, a fire at a streetlight in Nestadt Street, a cable repair in the avenues in Northmead and a blown cable which affected all seven Rynpark Retirement estates, Lessing and Struben streets,” Joseph said.

“Throughout this period, feedback from the energy department became increasingly less and restoration times no longer being communicated.”

After the ongoing outages, Joseph made two requests to the CoE for public meetings to address the matter.

“All stakeholders, including the executive mayor, Nkosindiphile Xhakaza, MMC of Energy Mzayifani Ngwenya and the city manager, Dr Imogen Mashazi, along with the head of the department and chief engineer were requested to address the community about the issue and to shed light on what plans they had to remedy the situation. To date, both requests have gone unanswered.”

Joseph said the outages affected about 7 900 households, resulting in the loss of refrigerated food and household appliances.

Added to the outages, water supply from the Hospital Road water tower was also affected.

“It is no secret the energy department is utterly under-resourced, and because of budgetary constraints, does not have access to equipment and resources to address issues stemming from Benoni’s outdated electrical infrastructure,” she said.

“The city’s service level agreement (SLA) states they should tend to electricity-related complaints within 24 hours, thereafter ward councillors may escalate it.

“However, this can only be done if we have reference numbers and addresses of those who have reported it using platforms such as the CoE call centre, mobile app and the website.”

She said ward councillors may not go on site where teams were investigating or repairing faults.

“We are reliant on the relevant department to supply us with timeous feedback; this is not happening,” she said.

“Radio silence leads to further resident frustration which escalates into a volatile, yet preventable, situation.”

Joseph confirmed the restoration of power to the affected areas, following a planned outage from 09:00 to 22:00 on March 2.

“We need answers and we deserve that those in power meet with affected communities,” she said.

“We are stuck in a spiral where service delivery is strained and it is the ratepayers who are suffering.

“It may seem that our electricity woes have been resolved for now, but it does not mean that we are not entitled to answers. I will continue applying pressure until we do.”

A request for comment, outlining the timeline of faults, was sent to the city’s spokesperson, Zweli Dlamini.

No comment was received at the time of publication.

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