Kanonkop residents woke up to no electricity since this morning at 05:00.

According to DA Councillor Johann Dyason, only the lower part of Kanonkop was affected by the power outage, which has been attributed to weather damage. Dyason said that the outage is not connected to the one affecting the Elandslaagte area.

The estimated restoration time for Kanonkop’s power outage is three hours.

Elandslaagte

Video footage and WhatsApp messages circulating on social media have shown that a power line on one of Eskom’s pylons sustained damage, leaving large areas along the N11 (Loskop) without electricity.

According to a local resident in the Elandslaagte area, the incident occurred shortly after 02:00 this morning. The power line collapsed and is lying across the Elandslaagte gravel road near Doornkop, roughly 1km from the N11.

While farmers initially believed the affected power line was struck by lightning, Observer Daller journalist Janine Saayman stated that the line burnt out after Groblersdal was redirected to Middelburg’s power line.

According to Retha Coetzee from the Banke Boere Unie, Elandslaagte, Bankplaas and Mooiplaas areas are affected.

Groblersdal/Marble Hall

Groblersdal, Marble Hall and surrounding agricultural areas have been left without electricity since yesterday at 16:00.

According to Saayman, the power outage is due to a serious fault on a transformer supplying Groblersdal and Marble Hall.

Saayman received feedback from a DA ward councillor in Groblersdal, Willie Oosthuizen, providing the following information:

Yesterday’s power outage was caused by the failure of a 20MVA transformer that feeds Groblersdal from Marble Hall. Major repairs need to be done on the transformer, which are expected to take considerable time.

To restore electricity, Eskom redirected electricity to Groblersdal from Middelburg. However, the power line is incapacitated to bear the load, resulting in power lines near Middelburg burning out at 02:00. Eskom is currently at work to repair the burnt-out power lines and restore electricity to Groblersdal.

An estimated restoration time has not been provided.

“As soon as this power line is repaired, some sort of load-shedding will have to be implemented to protect this line as it’s not ‘large enough’ to supply the whole area.”