Pretoria east residents fear dark festive season due to consistent power problems

Residents in the east of Pretoria live in fear of spending the festive season in the dark due to consistent power outages in recent weeks.

Residents of Garsfontein, Waterkloof Heights, Waterkloof Park, Ashley Gardens, Alphan Park and Newlands experienced about three long power outages in the past two weeks.

Several other suburbs in the east of Pretoria in the past two months experienced the same problem. In November, hundreds of residents in The Blyde, Greencreek and Savannah Country Estate spent about eight days without power due to cable theft.

Unitl September, Moreletapark residents were in the dark following 10 power cable theft incidents at the Mooikloof power substation alone between July 1 and September 9, which cost the metro more than R500 000 in repairs.

Garsfontein residents were unhappy after experiencing three power outages, the longest of which lasting about 11 hours.

Elmarie Venter, who is also an admin for a local community chat group, said residents were upset because they lost food and suffered damage to electrical equipment during the outages.

“The key complaint was why maintenance [of substations] has not been done as that would have prevented this outage. This is however a common theme throughout South Africa, not just here,” Venter said.

Another resident Derek Mohr said Garsfontein’s utilities infrastructure had been in a poor state of disrepair for years.

He said technicians were under great pressure to fix root causes of the power problems.

“During the past week from Sunday (November 27), there were repeated power outages at the Highlands substation and Garsfontein secondary substation, interspersed with sessions of load-shedding and cable theft. Attempts by the technical teams to address the problems appeared to be largely ineffectual, with power failing again shortly after repairs,” Mohr said.

Mohr said after persistent outages an audit and in-depth investigation of the substation infrastructure was done to determine the root causes of the recurring problems.

On the following Tuesday, residents endured an extended power outage as technicians were addressing underlying problems for a sustainable solution at the Highlands substation, he said.

“So far the Highlands substation appears to be performing according to expectations,” he said.

“It must also be said that the commitment and co-operation of the technical teams during this difficult period appears to have been exceptional. As a resident I am aware that the issues they face are often extremely demanding and I am grateful for their effort.”

Another resident Riaan Bartlett said he was frustrated and even angry because for days power was off for 8.5 hours and 11 hours last Monday. Barlett said power outages were also caused by cable theft.

“It also is clear that Eskom’s problem[load-shedding] will take years to resolve, if ever.

“The future with regards to dependable power supply looks very gloomy as the people that created the problems have to solve the problems – that will not happen, ever.”

The residents said they appreciated the assistance of ward 45 councillor Elizabeth Basson.

Basson said load-shedding was to blame for the power outages, adding that it was “creating havoc.”

“Load-shedding appears to have aggravated the problems. The regular switching on and off causes continual spikes which then impact on transformers feeding electricity to various areas.”

Basson said residents and businesses were upset about the power outages due to the inconvenience caused.

She said often after repairs there was load-shedding and when power returns the system “trips again”.

She said an investigation was done at the Highlands substation to determine the problem.

“Teams audited the Highlands substation and network, tested every component, fixed what was needed and performed maintenance.

“For now, things are looking positive at the substation and with the load being shared between two transformers the network seems to have been stabilised.”

Earlier this month, corporate and shared services MMC Kingsley Wakelin, during a visit to the Willows substation in Lynnwood Ridge that had experienced regular trips, said load-shedding damaged infrastructure.

“As a result, residents will experience prolonged power outages. One of the feeder cables at Willows substation has been damaged and will need to be replaced with over 300m of new cables.”

The Tshwane metro had yet to respond to requests for comment on what solutions are there to deal with persisting power issues by our time of going to print.

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