Blyde residents see red as power outages continue to bite
Tenants at the Blyde Balwin Crystal Lagoon Properties, which expects to home a new hotel, are growing tired of prolonged power outages, while management says it continues to lobby and engage with Tshwane on several platforms to increase security around critical infrastructure.
Ratepayers at an upmarket residential estate have been rendered deadbeat following the recurring power outages due to cable theft and alleged poor maintenance.
The Heatherley substation, which is supposedly dependent on its principal Njala, has been a torment for dwellers of Blyde Balwin Crystal Lagoon Properties, in the east of Pretoria in the past years.
Residents and property owners claim that the Tshwane metro has neglected its infrastructure and is failing to protect it from constant attacks.
Residents have since 2019 been suffering from sudden power outages, from faulty lines, due to panel damage. The latest incident occurred on July 11 when a 29-year-old Tshwane security guard, at the Njala substation died during a shootout with cable thieves.
Parts of the east suffered as a result, including the estate that has offered a local primary school sanctuary but has for the past years seen its neighbours such as Greencreek and Savannah Country Estate blanketed in darkness outside the load-shedding schedules.
The stretch of land constantly battling power outages on the old Bronkhorstspruit Road will also soon be home to the 61-key hotel at The Blyde which is expected to commence trading in the third quarter of 2023.
The hotel is projected to provide direct job opportunities to approximately 45 people, most of whom will be from the local community.
Generators have been acquired to mitigate the prolonged outages, but unfortunately won’t be useful to dwellers of the prominent lagoon estate.
A lagoon property owner claimed that the metro is sitting on its hands and fails to protect its infrastructure from cable theft.
Resident Annelize Moodley said the area was vulnerable to prolonged power outages which were a torment for her as she worked from home and had a toddler to provide for.
“The body corporate doesn’t care because its members don’t live at The Blyde. Why would they care? Living like this year after year with the same electricity nonsense is the most selfish, annoying, inconvenient, inconsiderate feeling ever and we live with it daily.”
Moodley said the power outages occurred any time of the day.
She said days and nights could be spent without power and mostly often outside the load-shedding schedule.
“The duration for outages could be going on for full days, two to three days or weeks… it’s an annual occurrence.”
She said Balwin had generators installed for which the tenants allegedly paid extra.
“They [generators] helped in no way as we remain endlessly without electricity in the coldest winter in SA.
“They are almost done building a hotel on the estate, so we residents are concerned about electricity demand and supply. We’ve had enough.”
“This is going on for months and they just have no compassion for the residents. It’s inhumane and unacceptable.”
Balwin spokesperson Morné Reinders, responding to the complaints over power outages at Greencreek and The Blyde properties said cable theft and damage to the Njala substation were to blame.
“We continue to lobby and engage with Tshwane on several platforms to increase security around critical infrastructure.”
He said Balwin was forced to safeguard infrastructure by hiring security firms to roll out additional patrols, as well as clearing vegetation around the substations to deter crime.
He said the management had further tried to cushion the blow of outages on residents by installing generators as large sections of the east of Tshwane had been affected by cable theft and significant damage to the main Njala substation.
132kV (Njala-Watloo) line has tripped. Technicians are dispatched to do inspection on the line before we can energise. Mamelodi (Group 5) which is currently on #loadshedding from 10h00-12h30 will remain off even after #loadshedding .
— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) July 29, 2023
“This impacts on power delivery to substations including the Waltloo 1, Mamelodi 1, 2 and 3, Wapadrand, Mooikloof, Koedoespoort and Heatherley substations.”
“Balwin has installed generator power back-up at its Greencreek and The Blyde Riverwalk estates respectively, to assist residents during load-shedding.”
He said the property management was looking to install a third generator that would partially service the forthcoming hotel, lifestyle centre and residential apartment.
He said as a result of the wider grid outage, the generators ran much longer and under a heavier load than usual.
“Although Greencreek Estate is not impacted by the prolonged outages, one of the two generators at The Blyde had to undergo maintenance.”
Reinders added that spare parts were not readily available in South Africa for the additional power generator and had to be ordered from overseas.
“Generators at The Blyde were relocated on July 19 and 20, 2023 resulting in power back-up not being available during load-shedding.”
The metro had yet to comment regarding its plans to safeguard infrastructure.
Concerns over Sunnyside residents’ failure to attend CPF meetings
Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
