East residents frustrated after being plunged into darkness

Ratepayers have been left hopeless and tormented in most of the eastern suburbs of Pretoria after being without power for more than five days.

The outage follows the Mooikloof substation being engulfed by a blaze on Wednesday night, April 17.

The residents in the east are very concerned over the series of substation fires and this widespread power outage has left homes and businesses without electricity, with some ratepayers fearing that the darkness will attract criminals.

Several suburbs including Garsfontein, areas east of Solomon Mahlangu Drive, Moreleta Park, as well as Pretoria East Hospital, Woodlands Lifestyle Estate, Mooikloof Estate, Mooikloof Ridge, The Wilds Estate, and surrounding farms were affected.

It is expected that power will be restored to the scores of residents affected by the power outage in a phased approach from Wednesday evening, April 24.

Rekord spoke to some residents who mentioned that the outage was nothing short of a torment.

Carmen Rogans, who lives in The Wilds Estate, said the outage has been severe.

Rogans said it has been financially and emotionally distressing.

“We have been using a generator and we have to run it for approximately eight hours a day. We had to buy a camping gas stove with a few bottles of warm water to try a makeshift bath,” Rogans said.

She said it has been tough, adding she has been spending money on fuel to keep the generator going.

“Buying additional fuel for the generator has cost so much more than we had planned to spend during any month.”

Rogans said this is the third time the substation has burnt down since 2017.

“There has been no indication as to why, how this keeps happening and what measures are being put in place to stop it. We have had no feedback regarding the cause of this issue and of course, there are multiple rumours going around, including sabotage.”

Rogans said they have been charging devices for neighbours who have no resources. “And we have had to run a cable from our generator to another neighbour so that they have some sort of electricity. We connected our neighbour because they have a young baby, so it’s incredibly tough for them.”

For Nadia Schultz who resides in Olympus, the power outage is a torment and disruption to her daily routine.

Schultz said she was one of the many who found themselves plunged into a dark and inconvenient reality, with fridges full of spoiled food and routine tasks like charging devices and taking hot showers disrupted.

“We don’t have warm water to bathe, we cannot do our laundry as well as have a home-cooked meal,” she said.

She said the impact was felt heavily and she was forced to travel to Bedfordview just to enjoy simple comforts like a warm shower and do laundry.

She however thanked her local ward councillor Malcolm de Klerk for the daily updates on the repair progress.

De Klerk said the delays in the repairs were caused by the estate housing only allowing teams to be working between 07:00 and 23:00.

“There was a misunderstanding between the city and the estate housing the substation regarding working hours. However, we have rectified this, and we thank the estate for its co-operation as the working hours are extended.”

De Klerk said the electricity team is expecting to power the substation by Wednesday, April 24.

“We envisage power to be restored latest from Wednesday evening April 24, in a phased approach.”

De Klerk said on Monday the team managed to push work and achieved the following:

– Installation of 630 cables and control cables completed on Transformer R. The team is busy with functionality tests

– Busy with oil circulation and purification on Transformer C

– Switchgear Board A+C:
– Busbar installation and testing completed.
– Low voltage (LV) functional tests on 11kV board are done.
– Busy with the commissioning of high voltage (HV) controls and protection (protection of 132/11kV transformer and HV circuit breaker control)

– Four Woodhill feeders connected to the board are completed and 1511kV feeder cables still to be terminated are awaiting delivery of cables.

#PowerUpdate:Mooikloof Substation
Transformer R: installation of cables, team busy with functionality tests for Transformer R

Transformer C: Busy with oil circulation & purification.

Switchgear Board A+C: ⁠Busy with commissioning of High Voltage (HV) controls & protection

— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) April 22, 2024

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