Pretoria West uproar over 5-day power outage
Residents in Pretoria West took to the streets on Tuesday evening over a power outage that had lasted for five days.
Pretoria West residents took to the streets on Tuesday evening to protest a five-day power outage in the area.
Resident and crime activist, Eric Cordier said residents were fed up with the power outages that “had become a regular occurrence”.
“This was the only way they could get through to the Tshwane metro,” he said.
Cordier said residents suffered losses in groceries and electrical equipment during the power outage, “which also enabled crime in the area”.
Another resident, Heila de Bruin, said power came back on on Wednesday around 09:00 after having gone off on Saturday.
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“We are sick and tired of the ongoing power outages,” she said.
“Something needs to be done urgently.”
She said power had gone off about 15 times in the last six months costing families a great deal.
“Our fridge is on the verge of breaking and we also had to throw away hundreds of rands worth of meat,” she said.
“Our neighbour also had to throw away a lot of food.”
Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the power failure was caused by a network overload.
“The system kept tripping when technicians put it on. A contingency plan has been sketched to ensure that power is back on.”
He did not say if the metro would be upgrading the system in the area any time soon.
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Rekord previously reported that residents could claim compensation from the metro for food spoilt due to a power outage.
According to the metro, there had been 1 498 power failures between November last year and April as a result of cable theft and vandalism that had cost R51 million to repair in the past six months.
Mayoral spokesperson Sam Mgobozi previously said the city believed cable theft was an attempt to destabilise the administration.
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