Residents in parts of Ferndale remain without electricity, as a power outage stretches into its third day, disrupting daily life and forcing families to abandon long-planned Christmas gatherings.

The outage has highlighted ongoing infrastructure failures and growing strain on the local power network.

Read more: Water restored after week-long Sharonlea and Olivedale outage

Kent Avenue first lost a power phase on December 13. What was initially thought to be an isolated fault has since exposed deeper technical problems.

Ferndale resident Lianda Brenkman described the emotional and physical toll the outage has taken on her family. “All of our Christmas plans as a family have had to be changed. My wife has been placed on disability this year, and we were really hoping for a precious Christmas with her.”

His wife, Rene, lives with an autoimmune disease (CViD) and depends on electricity for essential medical treatments. “She cannot nebulise and do her other medical specialised treatments as she is required to do. We have had to take our fridge contents to friends, as we had bought some meat for the Christmas season, and we are going to another friend’s house to take a warm shower later today.”

Repeated attempts to log faults have brought little relief. “Our logs with City Power just keep being closed.

“We have had to cancel our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day plans. This is very sad as we were hoping to really have friends and family around Rene this Christmas.”

Chairperson of the Ferndale Ridge Residents Group Pierre van Wyk said the outage is the result of unresolved infrastructure issues dating back to earlier incidents. “We discovered a vagrant living in the substation who had to be removed. He didn’t vandalise anything, but we found that City Power had never replaced the breakers as promised after the previous outages.”

He said that unsafe electrical configurations are compounding the problem. “They’ve illegally mixed circuits between two feeds. Now, when the Maid Marion Avenue breaker trips, Kent Avenue loses a phase and residents are left without power.”

Also read: Power outages continue in Randburg

Van Wyk added that restoration attempts have been inconsistent. “Sometimes power is restored for a few hours, then it goes off again. There has been no restoration now, and it’s day three.”

Oak Avenue has also been affected. “Oak is suffering because of poor workmanship in the hole there. City Power was made aware of this as a potential cable theft issue, but it was never correctly repaired. Some houses there are now also on day three with no power.”

In a statement, the Randburg Service Delivery Centre (SDC) acknowledged the pressure on the electricity network and the high volume of unresolved outages. “The power system is constrained. We urge customers to reduce their electricity consumption to prevent overload. ”

The centre warned that weather conditions could further slow response times. “Inclement weather conditions may affect our response time to outages, and, as a result, repairs and restorations may be delayed.”

According to the SDC, there were 374 open calls this morning, with 219 outages older than 24 hours. “We are aware of the high call volumes and have deployed more resources to work on resolving all outstanding incidents logged. The resources will also focus on repairing and restoring plants out of service.”

Residents were also advised to take precautions during outages. “During an outage, unplug all appliances to prevent inrush current when power supply is restored. This minimises the risk of network disruptions and ensures continuous electricity supply.”

The SDC reported it will continue updating affected customers and apologised for the inconvenience caused.

For Ferndale residents, however, the concern remains that without urgent and proper repairs, the festive season will continue in the dark for many households.

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