Households and business across the city were plunged into darkness, at 01:22, on January 24 following attempted cable theft.

According to information received from Ward 27 councillor Lornette Joseph, the cable which feeds both the Morehill and CBD substations, was extensively damaged, affecting Mackenzie Park, Rynsoord, New Modder, Western Extension, the CBD, Northmead, Rynfield and surrounding areas

“The affected cable, which was replaced with an aluminium cable, nearly five years ago, holds very little value for would-be criminals and unscrupulous scrap dealers. I believe the damage would have been far greater it the out-dated copper line was not replaced,” she said.

“However, the repair process is time consuming and the Benoni electrical department estimates that the restoration time will be by no later than 17:00, tomorrow (January 27), more than 72 hours since the outage occurred.”

Ward 73 councilor Sipho Ngobese, said that investigations have revealed that the cable was damaged at two locations and that operations to conduct repairs through joints, may take eight hours each.

Joseph confirmed that teams were already on site, on Monday (January 26).

“The team is busy preparing the cable, they will install the first joint then prepare the other joint and place it on the cable,” she explained.

“A compound will be then poured to secure the joints. Once it hardens, which may take six hours, pressure testing will commence. If everything goes according to plan the line will be energised and power will be restored.”

Benoni SAPS

Benoni CPF chairperson, Dr Reza Patel, raised alarm regarding the lengthy power outage, stating that operations at the Benoni Police Station have come to a standstill due to the station’s back-up generator unit being faulty, for more than four years.

In a statement, the police station’s spokesperson, Captain Nomsa Sekele confirmed that essential services at the station as well as its telephone lines have been affected, however the temporary use of a generator, supplied by the CPF, has ensured that part of the station had access to power from January 25.

“Our telephone lines are inoperational thus negatively affecting our ability to timeously respond to calls. We are doing our upmost to minimize disruptions in our services to the community,” she said.

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Until such time that the electricity to the station is restored, emergency calls can be made to the following numbers:
• Customer Service Centre (CS), 071675 6717 or 071675 6719.
• Vispol Commander or Benoni Vispol Commander, Colonel Sinothi Ndaba, on 082 822 8078.
• Station Commander, Brigadier Khumbulani Mbatha, 082 778 7919.

“It is unacceptable that during a city-wide power outage, essential services such as the police station cannot function at optimal levels, due to a non-functioning generator,” said Patel.

“Officers’ safety is being jeopardised while the community does not have efficient access to emergency assistance during a time when their personal security measures have been compromised. Immediate action is needed to prevent future incidents such as these.”

Community in action

Joseph took the opportunity to thank the community of Ward 27 for its sense of community spirit, coming to the rescue of affected residents.

“Ward 27 is my heart and its residents my heartbeat. As news broke that some of our community members will have to brace for a lengthy power outage, I started receiving messages from residents offering fridge space in order to preserve food, dry ice, assistance in laundry washing, food preparation as well as shower facilities,” she beamed.

“Others even offered generators to parents of babies and the elderly to lighten the burden.

“The response was overwhelming and heartening. Thank you to the residents and business who have selflessly joined hands to help affected community members.”

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