Over 5 000 residents signed party’s petition over outages
More than 5 000 fed-up residents have signed the DA in Tshwane petition over prolonged power outages in Pretoria over the festive season and into the new year.
The DA announced its plan to lay a formal complaint with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) in terms of Section 32 of the Energy Regulation Act.
Tshwane mayoral candidate Cilliers Brink said Tshwane was in breach of its Nersa licence conditions to provide a reliable supply of electricity.
Last week, the DA launched a city-wide petition over the prolonged power outages, collapsing infrastructure and poor response times, which are crippling households, threatening jobs and pushing the city’s economy over the edge. The DA already has 5 466 signatures of support.
“The complaint will be backed by the documented experiences of our councillors, as well as the residents,” he added.
Brink said the recurring power outage in East Lynne over the new year period was the longest in recent memory.
He said the power went off and on, but was mostly off from 26 December. Brink added some of the outages started in November.
East Lynne resident Yolande Fourie said they were without power for 16 days over the festive season.
“When the power returns, it only stays on briefly. Last weekend, we were without power from the 9th until the 12th January.”
Fourie said the worst was losing money and food meant to carry them through this month.
“We didn’t make provision for this, it’s January, everyone knows what month it is.
“What about the people who have no backup, who have already had to throw away meat because it went off during the power outage,” she added.
“We were all fed up with the whole situation. Under the circumstances, it’s getting better, but we don’t get excited too quickly,” Fourie said.
She said now the power was back, water pressure was low.
“You just can’t stay ahead.”
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City provides explanation for outages
MMC for utility services Frans Boshielo said the repeated electricity interruptions affecting East Lynne and surrounding communities were linked to the fire at the Koedoespoort substation on 26 December.
“Following the fire, the substation itself was repaired and returned to operation,” said Boshielo.
“However, the incident and subsequent restoration placed significant strain on an ageing distribution cable that carries electricity from the substation to multiple mini-substations in the area.
“This cable is approximately 15km long and supplies a wide network.
“Due to its age and condition, it has developed several weakened sections.
“Each time the cable trips, technical teams from the energy and electricity business unit must first identify the exact location of the fault along the cable before repairs can be carried out.”
The MMC said once one fault was repaired and electricity was restored, another weakened section could fail when the system came under load, which is why residents may experience power returning briefly before another outage occurs.
He said unit teams and contractors have remained in the area since late December and continue working to locate faults, carry out repairs and stabilise supply.
“The city is doing everything possible to stabilise the electricity network in this area and to reduce further interruptions while longer-term solutions are assessed,” Boshielo said.
Earlier this month, Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya announced an investment at Wapadrand substation to improve reliability for Pretoria East, including the refurbishment and upgrade of the substation, which was severely damaged by a fire in July 2021.
Moya said the work at Wapadrand was part of a broader programme to stabilise electricity supply on the eastern corridor.
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