Raslouw, Clubview residents without power and warning
A crisis task team has been established to deal with the constant power outages.
Residents of Raslouw, west of Centurion, are angry after being left without electricity for more than 24 hours without explanation by the metro.
According to resident Marry Daniel, power went out on Tuesday.
“We have been without power since Tuesday, and none of the officials has said anything about why we don’t have electricity. We had the power outage immediately after load-shedding,” Daniel said.
MMC for utilities and regional operations Daryl Johnston blamed the outage on load-shedding.
“It is important for residents to note that load-shedding can result in additional outages due to high surges and overloading of the network, as well as vandalism and theft of City of Tshwane infrastructure. Furthermore, as the frequency of load-shedding increases, City resources will be stretched as our teams have to be deployed across Tshwane to implement load-shedding, as directed by Eskom,” Johnston said.
The MMC said the electrical department was stretched to the limit as it was expected to keep up with the load-shedding schedule and also fix power outages.
He, however, said that the team was fully committed, adding that it would continue to repair and maintain the city’s electrical network.
“The City’s energy and electricity department remains committed and will continue to work through this immense pressure on our electricity network, but the reality is that our system is not designed to cope with this situation.
“The heavy rains we have experienced recently also make this situation worse, with wet weather increasing the likelihood of equipment faults. This situation is very serious for the entire Tshwane.”
Johnston said he had been tasked by mayor Randall Williams to establish a crisis team to deal with the constant power outages.
Meanwhile, Clubview residents were on Sunday left frustrated by a power outage that lasted more than 18 hours, also without explanation by the City.
Rathulo Lee told Rekord that they have been without power since Sunday afternoon, and there had been no warning by the municipality.
“The metro is inconveniencing us, I mean we had plans, Sunday is a very short day now imagine the day without electricity. This is pure disrespect from the City, we have to cook and prepare our work stuff but how do we do that if the City is going to willy-nilly switch off lights whenever they feel like it?” a visibly frustrated Lee told Rekord.
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