Residents and businesses affected by financial losses or other damages during the week-long power outage that hit several areas of Brakpan following a severe storm on November 24 will not be able to claim for damages from the City of Ekurhuleni.

“The cause of the fault is due to the adverse weather conditions which was accompanied by lightning and hail. These are external causes (force majeure) due to the impact of climate change,” said city spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.

As reported in last week’s Brakpan Herald, the electricity was expected to be restored by 16:00 on November 28, but the deadline passed and residents found themselves in for another wet and dark weekend.

Frustration was mounting, with many residents expressing displeasure over the lack of official communication from the City of Ekurhuleni. The power was finally restored on December 1.

“The adverse weather condition that was accompanied by excessive lighting and hail resulted in a flashover on the cable terminals, and oil leaking,” said Dlamini, when asked about the official cause of the outage.

“The low oil consequently led to a cable fault and then the blackout.”

He further explained that there were two faults.

“The blown cable termination, and the fault along the cable. Oil filled cables is old technology that uses high pressured oil as an insulation medium in the cable,” said Dlamini.

“Procurement of cable spares is done through the normal appointed service providers. These parts are vintage, scarce and imported from overseas by the local distributors.

“The joint consists of different parts and needs to be assembled first before installation. In this case, not all joint accessories/parts for this specific cable was available and had to be sourced.

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“Once the joint has been installed, the oil is then topped up through a filtration system in order to remove air and moisture along the complete length of 6.5 km of the cable.”

When asked why the restoration timeline had shifted, Dlamini stated estimated restoration times are based on reasonable expectation if all conditions are met and all the necessary resources are available.

The Herald also asked how regularly updates are provided to ward councillors or through official municipal channels.

“For such occurrences, communication is done as/when the problem persists until the time it has been resolved.

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“This is done through the city’s social media platforms, Brakpan Energy Councillors WhatsApp group, as well as press statements and individual SMS service,” said Dlamini.

The Herald inquired about what emergency support is provided to vulnerable residents, including the elderly, individuals dependent on oxygen, and households without water, food, and income due to the outage, to which

Dlamini replied: “Electrical networks are not perfect and faults continually exist as the operating conditions within this environment is dynamic.

“This particular municipal network has only a single energy source and no substitute source to assist residents at this stage.”