Power outage strikes Baipei-Promosa amid municipal delays

Residents of Baipei Promosa, a township within the J.B. Marks Local Municipality, have been enduring a five-day electricity outage, with repeated failures by local authorities to address the situation. The power supply in the area has been disrupted multiple times since October 25, leaving residents in distress and without power for extended periods.

The outages began when two blocks in Baipei Promosa suddenly lost electricity. Residents immediately reported the issue to disaster management, but despite the urgency, there was no municipal response. According to one resident, who wished to remain anonymous, a local, unqualified electrician from the Rockville informal settlement took it upon himself to try to resolve the problem. “The unqualified electrician received money from residents for installation work and climbed up to the transformer to switch on the circuit breaker,” the resident explained. “He did this without the proper authorisation or expertise.”

The electricity was briefly restored, but by Saturday (26 October) the power went off again at 14:00. After further complaints, a standby electrical team responded at 21:00 and switched on the circuit breaker once more. However, the solution was temporary, and by Sunday morning, 27 October, the electricity was out again. Jeanette Tshite, the acting communications manager for J.B. Marks Local Municipality, addressed the situation in a statement, acknowledging the challenges faced by the community. “The electricity network in Promosa Baipei is overloaded and experiencing frequent trips, conductor burnouts, and equipment failure.

The overload is largely due to illegal connections in surrounding informal settlements,” Tshite explained. “The J.B. Marks Local Municipality will issue an official statement on how we intend to address the issue of illegal connections.” She also highlighted the ongoing difficulties in the area. “Unfortunately, these trips are happening amidst other breakdowns in other parts of the city. We have an established protocol for how emergencies and life-threatening situations are attended to. All municipal electricians are fully trained, examined, and certified to work on the municipal electricity distribution network, and they are competent to handle any repairs that are needed.”

Meanwhile, Glenville Fransman, a community leader in Promosa, confirmed with the Herald that the electricity issues have been resolved. He noted, however, that some households are still without electricity cables, which remains an unresolved concern for the community.