It has been a dark weekend for the majority of Ward 70. Issues at the Sentraal Substation, which supplies power to several other substations including the Florida North and Nursery Substations, meant that Florida, Discovery, Maraisburg and surrounds have been without power since Friday, 7 May.
Ward 70 councillor, Caleb Finn, provided an update on Saturday, 8 May, saying that the repair work at Nursery Substation was at approximately 60 per cent, but the issues in Discovery, Florida Park and Florida were still being attended to. Caleb explained that there was only one team of operators available, who were working as quickly as possible, but by Saturday afternoon, they had not even begun repair work in Florida North. The councillor expressed his frustration with the situation, continuing to say that feedback from City Power had been very slow.
Many households had their electricity restored gradually throughout the weekend, but by 5pm on Sunday, City Power could still not supply an estimated time of restoration for the rest of the residents.
The entity’s spokesperson, Isaac Mangena, has apologised profusely for the prolonged inconvenience suffered by the residents. Isaac explained that several faults had been experienced, some of them only coming to light after some of the restorations had been completed. He continued to say that the City Power team is currently finalising the repairs and they expect restoration by later this evening.
