Tshwane hit by widespread power outages due to protest

Several parts of Tshwane have been without any electricity for almost four days, as striking municipal workers allegedly refuse to attend to the outages.

This after municipal workers went on strike last week, demanding a 6.25% salary increase when talks between the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the Tshwane metro collapsed.

It is alleged that some Samwu-affiliated workers have been intimidating staff members and prohibiting them from reporting for work.

Residents from various areas have reported outages, without power being restored again.

East and Central

According to ward 101 councillor Mike Strange, about 2 000 residents in his ward were affected by the outages.

Strange said the affected areas were in Silver Lakes and parts of Willow Acres.

This was also affecting businesses in the area, such as restaurants and car dealerships.

“The power outage hit the area at 16:20 on Saturday morning and nothing has been done since,” he said.

“The word from the metro is that the protest is hampering service delivery.”

Strange said the problem was that only professional system operators could turn the power back on and this could only be done once an assessment has been done to establish what the problem might be.

“Skilled electricians can work on medium voltage, but 11 kilovolts networks requires specialists,” he said.

“No one else can do this.”

Strange said some teams were able to fix street lights in the areas, but this only created confusion among residents who thought the same team could also restore the electricity.

“The people fixing streetlights are not necessarily experts where electricity outages are concerned.”

In Sunnyside, residents have also been without electricity for five days.

Other affected areas in the east of Pretoria are:

• Lynnwood
• Garsfontein
• Faerie Glen
• Silverton
• Moreleta Park
• Waterkloof
• Mamelodi East & West
• Nellmapius
• Muckleneuk

Centurion

“Currently no service delivery is happening in Centurion,” said ward 70 councillor Marika Kruger Muller

“There are areas without any power since Sunday night in Raslouw and Eldoraigne.”

Kruger-Muller said they were not receiving any answers from the administrators.

Other affected areas in Centurion are:

• Thaba Tshwane (Voortrekkerhoogte)
• Valhalla
• Laudium
• Lyttelton Manor
• Wierda Park
• Rooihuiskraal

North

In Pretoria North ward councillor Yolanda Duvenage said there was a power outage in West and Rachel de Beer streets since last Thursday morning at 04:15.

“This affects mostly businesses that have now been without power for six days,” she said.

“I also have a residential outage in Generaal Beyers Street since Sunday night, so it’s day 3 for them.”

Duvenage said there was a power outage in Rachel de Beer and Jan van Riebeeck streets since yesterday morning, which leaves that area at two days without any electricity.

Other affected areas:

• Montana Park
• Sinoville
• Roodeplaat
• Soshanguve
• Rosslyn

West and Moot

According to the Tshwane outage map, certain areas in the Moot and the west of Pretoria have also reported power outages.

These include:

• Capital Park
• Rietfontein
• East Lynn
• Philip Nel
• Pretoria Gardens
• Pretoria West
• Villieria

Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba previously said the protest had a devastating impact on services such as electricity and energy.

Bokaba said workers that reported for duty in certain regions have been physically threatened and their offices forcefully closed by the striking workers.

“Management has conceded to one of the workers’ demands of the payment of the annual wage increment, which would be paid on Wednesday, 29 July,” he said.

“The leadership of the municipality has made it abundantly clear to the labour union representatives that the City’s finances were in dire straits and thus cannot afford to pay the workers their outstanding bench-marking monies at this juncture.”

It is unclear how services would be brought to residents while the protest continues.