Powerless

Dillon McMurdo

nmt@caxton.co.za

NEWLANDS, Northcliff, Westdene and Melville residents were left in the dark again, presumedly due to cable theft.

The area was hit with a power failure at 9am on Sunday 20 October and subsequent intermittent interruptions, which would continue until Wednesday.

Residents were left in the dark wondering what the exact cause of this outage may be, and as to when the power might return.

City Power did not respond to queries from NMT on twitter.

“I did try to phone [City Power] but couldn’t get through,” said Sandy Robinson, a mother of two and resident of Newlands.

“It’s been hard. At the moment I have no work. We have been using candles and a little gas stove. No hot water to bath in either,” said Robinson, who during the interim has had to make necessary provisions for her family.

According to Robinson, just before five on Monday morning, a generator belonging to Generator and Plant Hire SA was placed across the road on 12th Street, opposite Coronation Training Centre, a school for learners with special educational needs. The generator was rented by City Power to provide temporary power to the school.

“It is becoming a nuisance, we believe there is a cut in power between two and three of the class rooms,” said Phebe Botman-Kerspuy, the Principal of the school.

“Learners with Autism tend to not know what’s going on,” she said.

According to News24, cable theft caused widespread power outages on the West Rand. The damage could take four or five days to repair. Areas such as Industria North, Delarey, White Ridge, Florida Glen, Bergbron and Northcliff to name a few, were affected.

Apparently, “one of the sub-stations in Italian Road had its cables stolen from the inside,” said a City Power worker, who came to work on the generator. This, however, has been unsubstantiated. Power has since been restored.