Faulty cables reported as far back as January 2012 had not been repaired by the City of Ekurhuleni.
This is according to Mike Waters MP, DA Kempvale constituency head.
He said documentation in the DA’s possession showed 55 faulty cables in Kempton alone had not been repaired, many of which were high voltage cables.
In a statement issued last week, Waters said the reason the metro could not provide electricity to Kempton Park residents when the Glen Marais substation caught fire in June last year was because the cable from the Spartan substation to the Van Riebeeck Park substation had not been repaired since August 2018.
“This led to the Van Riebeeck Park substation being unable to direct electricity to the Glen Marais substation feeder area,” he said.
“The DA has it on good authority that the reason the Glen Marais substation caught fire was due to the lack of maintenance. There were faulty breakers, faulty protection relays and faulty battery banks supplying the protection relays with power. This prevented the breakers from opening when the fault occurred, thereby causing the explosion,” added Waters.
“The lack of maintenance caused perfect conditions for the explosion, and coupled with the inability of the City of Ekurhuleni to repair the cable to the Van Riebeeck Park substation, resulted in residents having no electricity for six days.
“The DA has written to the National Energy Regulator to include these latest findings in their ongoing investigation into the City of Ekurhuleni and the Glen Marais substation fire.”
Waters said other startling finding by the DA include:
• Only 60 per cent of electricians and technicians at the Kempton Park depot have working vehicles. Electricians and technicians are forced to remain at the depot while they wait for vehicles to be repaired.
• Of the five cherry pickers only one is working.
• Of the three crane trucks only one is working.
• Basic equipment is old or broken.
• Unsafe equipment is being used such as phasing sticks.
• Lack of basic tools despite requests being made last year.
• The lack of equipment is so dire that cable faults cannot be detected unless the cable has been stolen and there is a physical hole in the ground. The electricians only have one working testing trailer between them.
• The general decay of infrastructure has become so serious that electricians refuse to enter the Kittyhawk North and South substations due to the unsafe conditions. When repairs have to be done, the whole area is switched off instead of a specific area. This causes unnecessary power disruptions to the residents.
• Apart from having to work without the necessary equipment, the buildings in which the electricians work from are not in accordance with health and safety standards.
The City of Ekurhuleni did not respond to Kempton Express’ queries regarding this matter.
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