IN recent months residents of Umgeni Park have been left without electricity for hours on end.

Cable faults have led to prolonged power outages, leaving residents and businesses in the area fuming.

The most recent incident left residents without electricity for close to 40 hours after a small substation exploded on Browns Drift Road.

It has been an added headache for homeowners and ratepayers, who at times have had to also contend with water shortages.

Belinda Hellerle Smith, the Greenwood Park SAPS Sector 3 Sub Forum 4 chairperson, said the outages were affecting residents and businesses in the area.

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“As a community, we are beyond frustrated with the ongoing electricity and water disruptions caused by the severe lack of maintenance to our critical infrastructure. The impact on residents and businesses is devastating. Beyond the business losses, residents who work remotely were unable to do their jobs for three days. The elderly in a retirement estate were left without electricity for extended periods, and members of the Muslim community, who had stocked up for Ramadan, suffered significant losses when their fridges and freezers failed,” she said.

“The latest outage, which began on Saturday, March 1, was due to severe flooding. When power was finally restored on Monday afternoon, March 3, the relief was short-lived. Less than 30 minutes later, a mini-substation exploded, plunging us back into darkness. While contractors worked tirelessly to restore power, key areas remained without power for more than 30 hours,” she said.

She also thanked Ward 36 councillor Heinz de Boer for his efforts, including engaging with senior managers at eThekwini Municipality’s MV Faults Department and keeping the community updated.

Pravina Singh, who was at home when the substation outside her home exploded, said the impact of the recent outage was widespread.

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“The substation is just a few meters from my unit. There was a deafening blast which left me disorientated at the time. The loss of power meant a mountain of food, cooked and raw, had to be discarded. The financial burden was also significant, but the mental toll of this unexpected disruption was even greater. The explosion caused a widespread power outage affecting the entire area of Umgeni Park which lasted for approximately 38 hours, significantly impacting residents and businesses. Prior to the explosion, there was another electricity disruption,” Singh said.

Ward 36 councillor Heinz De Boer concurred with residents that electricity infrastructure maintenance was one of the areas needing to be addressed.

“Since January 1, Ward 36 has had more than 30 medium voltage (MV) cable faults, which is an unprecedented high number. Umgeni Park in particular has been plagued with issues. The outage last weekend was absolutely terrible as there was a substation fault and an MV fault which left residents and businesses without electricity for a long time. I do agree with residents who’ve called for the infrastructure in Umgeni Park to be upgraded. I think this needs to happen because Umgeni Park is probably the most densely populated area in the ward.

“One thing we cannot ignore is the financial impact of outages, and in particular last week’s outage. I know that the commercial and shopping centre on Browns Drift Road was negatively affected. There were massive generators run at great expense to business owners. I also received numerous reports of people losing their food,” De Boer said.

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