The municipality is still not sure what is causing the sporadic outages that need to be corrected by external contractors while the municipal strike drags on.

Power was restored to parts of Kanonkop and Dennesig around 07:00 after outages since around 02:00 this morning.

Large parts of Eastdene in Boncker- and Oos Streets remain without power while contractors refuse to enter Newtown to restore electricity there, due to intimidation of contractors by striking workers.

Hlalamnandi and Extension 24, also just tripped minutes ago alongside the CBD at the Middelburg Observer offices where supply has since been restored.

On Thursday a mini-substation went up in flames in Zebra Street, which is also still giving problems.

Clubville and Gholfsig also tripped a few minutes ago with contractors working their backsides off to restore order to the local grid.

“We just cannot pinpoint the exact cause of the problems,” municipal spokeswoman, Ms Prudence Magutle, says.

She admitted that contractors were scared to go into areas where intimidation by striking employees are rife, without armed protection.

Striking workers have caused havoc the past two weeks, demanding a halt to the municipality’s intentions to outsource certain services, like waste collection, as a backup for situations just like this.

Community members have since collaborated to clean the town and drive heaps of rubbish to the landfill site.

Community members like the Sector 4 Kanonkop Radio Group, is also offering protection around the clock to contractors working on electricity and water problems.

The rain is just adding to the problems being experienced by the municipality.

Electricity supply to most areas remains unstable and sporadic outages will be dealt with on a case to case basis.