Loadshedding coming to ward 22 this December

Currently exempted areas of Ward 22 will experience loadshedding once the municipal Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (Scada) system comes online in December.

This was revealed as part of the Ward 6 (Ballito) and Ward 22 (Salt Rock, Sheffield and Umhlali) quarterly meetings over the past week where electricity was a hot-button issue.

Residents of the neighbouring wards have had vastly different loadshedding experiences over the last year, which has led to demands for equitable distribution of the power cuts.

Large parts of Ward 22 have avoided loadshedding because they share a grid with the Avon Peaking Power Plant and the switching has been done remotely by Eskom, said Ward 22 councillor, Privi Makhan.

Most other KwaDukuza Municipality (KDM) wards have been hit with regular outages reaching more than eight hours a day.

“With the implementation of the Scada system at the end of this year, KDM will be able to separate the grids and do the switching themselves,” said Makhan.

“This means residents of this ward need to prepare for the eventuality once the system comes online. We are told this will be at the end of December.”

It is currently unclear whether the loadshedding levels in non-exempted wards will lessen with Scada, but KDM will be able to implement their own schedules instead of relying on Eskom.

The Scada system also promises wider monitoring of the KwaDukuza grid, which would help with response times to faults and failures.

Elsewhere in the Ward 6 meeting, councillor Tammy Colley spoke of ongoing projects around Ballito.

“The Willard Beach rehabilitation, which encountered delays due to discrepancies between the stormwater system’s design and provided blueprints, is now nearing completion. The unforeseen collapse of a stormwater system beneath private property caused additional setbacks. However, an effective solution has been found, instilling hope for the project’s imminent conclusion,” said Colley.

The collapse at Salmon Bay and access to Sunrise Beach will both be fixed in the next financial year which starts in July, she said.

In Ward 22, Makhan spoke of the continuing issues around streetlight repair, with 324 of 666 lights in the ward not working at the time of print.

“The municipality has allocated R7.1-million for streetlight repairs across all 30 wards in the upcoming financial year. We should start seeing repairs in July,” she said.

Another regular issue raised by residents was the increase in traffic with the growth of estates in the area.

“I have confirmed that the new Sheffield Hills estate will have its main access on the P228 (Flag Farm Road) and not the P474 (Sheffield Beach Road). The P228 tarring, paid for by local developers, is nearing completion. The last section from Flag Farm to the Tinley Manor turnoff will be tarred in the 2024/25 financial year since it has been reclassified as an urban road by the Department of Transport.”

She said there were ongoing engagements with KDM on traffic calming at Mount Richmore on the P330 (Salt Rock Road).

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