
Initially City Power said that this year there would be no power outages and when widespread outages did occur it usually was blamed on cable theft or other criminal activity.
Now the service entity is singing a different tune. Although not advertised except on their website (to which the majority of the population does not have access) a schedule is now available.
Their website describes that “a planned outage is a power interruption that occurs when City Power switches off electricity supply at a substation or other portion of the network in order to execute maintenance and /or emergency duties to correct defects in the network so that it functions at its maximum potential”.
Then they follow with what is cold comfort to residents who are plagued by wrongful power cuts owing to the City’s refusal to acknowledge the billing crisis by saying that “A subsequent loss of power to customers as a result of a planned outage being implemented, may affect all or some of the areas/customers supplied from the substation or portion of the network concerned as in certain occasions only part of the substation may be isolated.
“However it is important to note that the areas mentioned as affected in the scheduled planned outage notice document are the areas that will definitely be isolated (switched off)”.
The schedule is as follows:
• 23 August – City and suburban
• 21 August – City and suburban
• 31 August – Florida
• 28 August – City and suburban
• 17 August – City and suburban
Information about areas outside Roodepoort is on City Power’s website.