No solution for power problems

MBOMBELA – Technicians were hampered by dense vegatation and adverse weather conditions after a thunderstorm caused a power failure in Steiltes and elsewhere in Mbombela on Saturday night. Residents were without power for 22 hours.

City of Mbombela spokesman, Mr Joseph Ngala, said that technicians struggled to reach the power cables which were damaged by lighting.
“The area had dense bush, trees and rocky parts,” he said. He added that misty conditions further hampered the attempt.

Technicians from the municipality and Eskom worked non-stop to find and repair the damage to the power lines. The storm brought much-needed rain, but caused a power outage at about 23:00. Electricity was only restored again to all areas at about 20:00 on Sunday. A source told Lowvelder that the area was supposed to be maintained and cleared of vegetation by the municipality, so that technicians can have access to the power lines. Ngala claimed this was not the case.

“The problem with fixing these lines, which are constantly getting damaged in storms, is that it is Eskom’s area in the mountains, so there is nothing we can do about the dense, thick brush there.

“We can’t even erect lightning conductors to try and prevent the situation,” he said. The source also claimed that electricians did not have spares to fix the damage on Sunday. “This causes long delays when we are fixing a problem as we have to wait to get spares which should be kept in supply,” the source said.

Ngala countered that fixing power lines was complicated as one didn’t know exactly what was needed until the problem had been located.

“It is not like fixing a vehicle. It is not as simple as having a toolbox with spares on hand,” he said.

Residents are disgruntled about the regular and prolonged power cuts caused by adverse weather in the area. One said she was upset about the time it took to fix the problem and the rudeness she experienced when trying to contact the municipality over the weekend. Another said she was rudely told to phone the fire department instead.

“When I finally got through to them, they told me they could not help me with information,” she said. Ms Theresa Cooper said many businesses in the area were affected when the electricity went off yet again on Monday.

I couldn’t work so it cost us time and money,” she added. Ngala said the municipality’s customer services department had to deal with extremely emotional callers and tried its utmost to handle the situation as professionally as possible. “We have to firstly identify what the situation is, and then investigate what damage has been done.

This is why we can sometimes not give accurate time frames of when the problems would be fixed.”

Residents can expect the status quo to remain. “There is nothing we can do about the situation, because it is caused by the weather conditions in the area,” Ngala concluded. Eskom communications practitioner for the Mbombela zone, Mr Eric Khoza said they supplied the bulk electricity to the municipality.

“All questions regarding the outage must be directed to the municipality in question as we do not discuss customer’ information with third parties, including the media,”
said Khoza.

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UPDATE : Electricity down for another three to five hours