In what can only be described as a selfless act, members of the community banded together until the early hours of Tuesday to regain access to electricity that had been off for 27 hours.

The outage was caused by the damaged substation in West Acres.

Lending a hand to the municipal technicians on site, residents decided to make their own hands dirty by digging trenches to access the damaged cables.

One of the community members, Pippa Botha, said local contractors and suppliers also came on board to give advice and assistance to municipal electricians, while most of Mbombela’s security companies patrolled all areas that were out of power.

ALSO READ: Some areas of Mbombela will be without electricity due to damaged substation

i’langa Mall provided affected residents with the means to charge their electrical devices, and community members with solar systems offered to charge the residents’ phones. Some brought food and drinks to those working with the municipal officials.

Botha said challenges people are facing include extra food for the holiday season which needs to be refrigerated. Also, safety is always a concern when the power is off and those with small babies need power to prepare formula. The rain also hindered operations.

“We also have elderly people who depend on electricity for oxygen. The affected areas were switched on at midnight and we are hoping that the remaining areas will be switched on before 10:00 today.”

ALSO READ: Substation damaged at West Acres in Mbombela

According to the spokesperson for the City of Mbombela, Joseph Ngala, the homes in West Acres which were reconnected by midnight was only a temporary arrangement. The municipality urged residents to only use necessary equipment. The 132/11KV transformer is currently stable and fine.

The areas still without electricity will be attended to this morning as the municipality still has to replace more than 140m of cable. Teams were already on site at 07:00