Unplanned sustained power outages leave residents frustrated
Last week, various parts of Pretoria including east suburbs were affected by an unplanned power outage which the metro said was triggered by rainy weather conditions.
The recent rains led to sustained power outages in various parts of Pretoria, and this became worse for the residents when the Tshwane metro workers out on strike, would not respond to the call-outs.
Various parts of Pretoria, including eastern suburbs were affected by an unplanned power outage which the metro said was triggered by rainy conditions last week.
For Garsfontein residents the outages were sustained over three days, and were exacerbated by load-shedding.
Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo attributed the delays in repairs to labour disputes.
“It was merely a misunderstanding in relation to overtime processes. Medium voltage underground cables failed and led to a trip at a local substation,” Mashigo said.
“Bad weather conditions play a significant role for the failures of medium voltage cables, especially during the rainy season.”
Garsfontein based Serene Park Retirement centre manager Cheryl Jonck said they experienced outages for over three days.
“We were affected from Monday to Tuesday for 25 hours and then again on Wednesday for another seven hours. Needless to say, this didn’t prevent us from also experiencing load-shedding,” Jonck said.
Jonck said the centre ran a voice-over internet protocol telephone system (a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband internet connection) and without power, this led to residents not being able to contact anybody in the event of a medical emergency.
“Frail care could also not have access to ambulance services or any other emergency that was required,” she said.
Jonck said their gate motors’ batteries were also not able to be charged and they had to operate them manually – a great security risk.
“People do not realise that the elderly can become very fearful, especially if they do not know what is happening. This is one of the aspects of aging.”
She said many of their residents were concerned about the damage of their food.
“Again the elderly work on a very tight budget and had the food been destroyed, that would have given them the added burden of additional food costs.”
Jonck said one of the residents was on an oxygen machine but was not affected by the power outage.
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For business owner Darsh Boodshoo of 4 Chilli Indian Takeaway & Spicebar in Garsfontein, the outage was financially “strenuous”.
“I lost about R4 000 during that period because I had to throw away damaged stock,” he said.
He said businesses were able to plan for planned outages but unplanned, sustained power outages were a struggle.
“If we knew ahead of time then as a business we could have planned around the outages but now we did not know anything.
“There came a stage where I had to stop servicing customers to put my fridges on and save the stock and it was difficult,” Boodshoo said.
“Even with the generators, the capacity is not the same. We cannot cope entirely without power. We wish there was better communication when it comes to unplanned outages so that we can know what is going on.”
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