After months of intermittent electricity supply in parts of Newlands, City Power has acknowledged residents’ frustrations, saying a combination of ageing infrastructure, overloaded equipment, and illegal electricity connections has made restoring a reliable supply increasingly difficult.

For many living along Italian Road, the ongoing outages had become part of daily life, with households spending more on gas, replacing spoiled food, and coping with repeated disruptions that have stretched on for nearly three months.

Read more: City Power links Newlands three-month power outage to damaged feeder cable

Residents count the cost

Resident Nomsa Sokhuba said the repeated interruptions have forced the family to buy food daily, because refrigerators cannot keep perishable items cold, while unexpected power surges have damaged household appliances. Sokhuba added that the outages have placed considerable strain on their household budgets. She estimated her family was spending an additional R2 500 to R3 000 every month on gas for cooking and heating – costs they had never planned for. She added that many families in the area have young children and babies, making prolonged reliance on gas both costly and concerning.

Ward 82 councillor Marilyne Smouse said residents’ frustration is understandable after enduring weeks of uncertainty despite numerous repair attempts. Smouse said she has continued engaging with City Power on behalf of residents and believes the utility must improve both its communication and long-term planning for the area.

Challenges identified in restoring stable supply

City Power acknowledged the hardship experienced by residents and confirmed that the recurring outages were caused by a combination of technical and operational challenges, rather than a single fault.

According to spokesperson Isaac Mangena, the electricity network has come under significant pressure from ageing infrastructure, persistently overloading underground cable faults, cable theft, vandalism, and illegal electricity connections. City Power said the most recent failure at the Italian Road transformer switching station occurred after excessive demand caused cables to spark, resulting in a transformer catching fire and sustaining extensive damage.

Also read: City Power ramps up security as cable theft drains resources

Although the damaged transformer was replaced, Mangena said continued overload conditions caused further failures, damaging newly repaired infrastructure and delaying the restoration of a stable supply.

Over the past three months, he said technical teams have carried out several interventions, including replacing transformers and circuit breakers, repairing underground cables, reconfiguring sections of the network, and deploying a temporary generator to provide electricity while permanent repairs were undertaken. However, City Power said the generator could not cope with the exceptionally high electricity demand in the area. “We also identified illegal electricity connections, meter tampering, and electricity theft as major contributors to the recurring overloads. These issues continue to place abnormal strain on the network and undermine repair efforts.”

Looking ahead, Mangena said infrastructure upgrades remain under consideration, subject to available funding, while further work is planned to identify illegal connections through vending audits and meter inspections. The utility added that one damaged feeder cable, serving part of Italian Road, still requires replacement, but said restoration work cannot proceed until metering teams are granted access to complete the required audits.

Mangena said this incident has once again highlighted the need for sustained investment in infrastructure renewal, continued revenue protection initiatives, and stronger enforcement against illegal electricity consumption.

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