Residents in Ward 82 experienced prolonged electricity outages this week, with some households and a local school going without power for up to five days.

Ward councillor Siobhan Muller said only one outage was resolved on Sunday, raising concern about the impact of budget constraints on service delivery.

“With the cut in overtime and service delivery budget, only one of our power outages was resolved. I have sent this list to the COO due to zero response from any senior official,” said Muller.

Muller shared a list of 15 logged outages across Lynnwood, Menlo Park and Ashlea Gardens.

Affected addresses included 473 Queens Crescent, 423 The Village Road, Old Fort Road (multiple homes), 385 Kings Highway, Sussex Avenue, Farmers Folly, 441 Mackenzie Street, 11th Street in Menlo Park, Alewyn Voster Street, Struben Kop Street and properties in Ashlea Gardens.

Laerskool Menlopark was also affected, with the outage on the corner of 10th Street and Thomas Edison reportedly lasting five days.

In response to Rekord’s enquiry, metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo confirmed that several of the listed outages had since been resolved.

These include the outages affecting 13th/14th/15th Streets and Brooklyn Road in Menlo Park resolved on February 15 at 23:00. Addresses 441 Mackenzie Street, 11th Street in Menlo Park, 14 on 12th Street, and Laerskool Menlopark were all resolved on February 16 by 12:00.

“The remaining outages, including Queens Crescent, The Village Road, Old Fort Road, Kings Highway, and Sussex [Avenue], have an estimated time of restoration of February 17.”

Mashigo confirmed that seven of the outages exceeded the metro’s standard turnaround time for restoration.

He attributed this to the high volume of power supply interruptions experienced across Region 3, which placed sustained pressure on available technical resources.

Mashigo said the metro has strengthened overtime management and control measures to ensure sustainability within approved budgets.

“Overtime continues to be applied on a controlled and prioritised basis in line with operational requirements.”

He said cross-depot operational support is activated when required, allowing teams from multiple depots to be redeployed to priority outages.

According to Mashigo, the outage at Laerskool Menlopark was primarily caused by theft and vandalism at a communal substation.

“The site will be incorporated into the electricity infrastructure hotspot list for targeted patrol consideration, alongside ongoing network restoration and monitoring measures.”

Muller, however, disputed parts of the metro’s feedback, saying several areas listed as still pending had already been restored.

These included Queens Crescent, The Village Road, Old Fort Road, 385 Kings Highway, 13th/14th/15th Streets, Sussex Avenue, 441 Mackenzie Street, 11th Street and Largo in Menlo Park.

She said Alewyn Voster Street also came back on, as it is linked to Sussex, The Village Road and Rodericks Road, while Farmer’s Folly remained off after the original call was closed and re-logged. Dely and Struben Kop streets were still unresolved at the time of speaking.

“Half of what is on this list that they say will be resolved today was resolved yesterday; that is how totally incompetent they are,” Muller said.

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