During the night of 30 January, an unexplained blackout occurred over areas such as Krugersdorp, Randfontein and surroundings, stretching as far as Fochville and Carletonville, among others. This happened without warning, and according to local municipalities, they also didn’t know why Eskom cut the power.
The News contacted Eskom for clarity and is still waiting for a response.
Also Read:
https://www.citizen.co.za/krugersdorp-news/400999/municipality-in-the-dark-about-why-parts-of-west-rand-were-without-power-early-this-morning/
Stage 2 load-shedding was scheduled across the country for 30 January, but Krugersdorp didn’t fall in that time slot. However, the lights went out at about 9pm and only came back on at about 1am, also without explanation. At about 9am on 31 January, the electricity went off again, without any indication as to when it would go on. Eskom was contacted once again, and an answer is still pending.
The worst might be yet to come, as Mogale City is scheduled for load-shedding from 4pm until 8.30pm on Friday, 31 January, meaning that the area would have suffered three periods of load-shedding within a single day. Eskom has warned about implementing load-shedding for the rest of the weekend as well.
Local Ward councillor Aletta van Loggerenberg posted the following in response to queries she’d received: “Load-shedding seems not to be following the schedule. We are trying to get hold of an Eskom spokesperson. Will keep you informed,” following by, “[We had] phoned Mogale City Local Municipality. Power was cut by Eskom. [We] phoned Eskom: they had to implement load-shedding outside of the schedule due to heavy pressure on the supply system due to maintenance work. They could not provide a time frame to say when power will be back on. They also said that there might be a possibility of load-shedding the whole weekend … the new chairman of Eskom will make an announcement later today.”
At this stage, seeing that Eskom might no longer be following its published schedule, it’s unclear if the area will be experiencing load-shedding from 4pm. This seems to be the case for Randfontein as well.
