This town’s electricity woes continue uninterruptedly.
For more than a month, residents connected to Rooidraai, which feeds off Duma Substation have not gone a week without some form of power interruption.

Residents are at their wits’ end and there seems to be no end in sight to the constant breakdown of mini-subs, power lines and breakers.

Three weeks ago residents were without power for 72 hours when damage to a cable occurred.
Electricians from Thaba Chweu Local Municipality (TCLM) were forced to test cables running from the substation to each of the mini-subs.

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During the week of September 4, Rooidraai failed to start up each time after load-shedding. On September 7 another power failure took place.

On September 13 a monkey was electrocuted between two phases, causing power cables to burn out. The latest power interruption befell Rooidraai on Monday.

The town’s electricity infrastructure has not been updated in decades and minimum maintenance takes place.
In 2016 when the first mention of Duma was made, TCLM said this substation would provide much-needed electrical supply to the town and that it would “alleviate” the load placed on Rooidraai.

TCLM then stated, “The ability to provide leads to the attraction of investors. We are implementing a national priority through the construction of the Duma Substation. As we speak there are five big applications in our town-planning unit which are put on hold purely because of the lack of sufficient electricity in Lydenburg, being a hospital, school, a Group Five hotel and a mall. A key point to take note of is that this project has the full backing and support of Eskom.”

Four years, R410 million and an unpaid Chinese investment later, there has still not been any improvement to the electricity network in town.

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The town still has no new hospital, school, hotel or mall which were used as persuasive flattery to support the construction of Duma built by China Sinogy Electric Engineering (CSEEC).
Discourse is at the order of the day between TCLM and CSEEC regarding the repayment of this foreign investment.

The newspaper contacted the municipality in an attempt to get clarity on when the system might be upgraded.

Themba Sibiya, communications manager at TCLM, agreed that the town has been experiencing unplanned electricity outages.

“The outages are caused by Eskom’s load-shedding which harms the existing underground cable joints. “The challenges will be addressed through the change from the old to new ring substation which will take place once the review of the Duma Substation contract is complete. The municipality is also in the process to secure grant funding to refurbish the power system.”