The sound of generators echoed through Weltevreden Park for almost a week as residents were left without electricity, businesses counted mounting losses, and a local butcher was forced to discard more than a ton of spoilt meat during a prolonged outage.

The power failure, which began on May 15, affected areas including Ridge View Terrace Shopping Centre and Without Street. Electricity was only restored on the evening of May 21.

Members of the RiverWel Residents Association (RA) said the outage was part of a growing pattern of electricity disruptions in the area over the past month.

“We’ve been logging these power issues for the past month, and it has escalated to the point where residents are sometimes without electricity for up to two weeks,” said Adeline Singh from the RiverWel RA. She said residents had repeatedly tried to contact City Power, while local businesses struggled to cope with ongoing disruptions.

The outage had a severe financial impact on businesses at Ridge View Terrace Shopping Centre.

Matthew Lundie, owner of Texan Butchery, said the business had only been operating for two months before being hit by the blackout.

“We’ve invested our hearts, time and savings into creating a place where the community can enjoy quality meat at good prices,” said Lundie.

He said the prolonged outage resulted in major losses, including the disposal of stock.

“We are carrying stock worth about R1.2m, and this morning we had to throw away about 1.26 tonnes of spoilt meat because we could not keep the generators running through the night,” he said. Lundie said he fears the business may not survive if the electricity problems continue.

Danika Coetzer from Ridge Terrace Pharmacy said she was forced to incur additional costs for generator fuel to ensure medication remained refrigerated.

“We have medicine that needs to be kept cold, so we cannot operate without electricity,” she said.

Residents also criticised City Power’s communication during the outage.

“I think the most frustrating thing is that the information we received was confusing,” said Alan Brand, administrator of the RiverWel RA. He said residents were repeatedly told contractors would be on-site, but no work crews were visible.

In response, City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the outage was caused by a severely damaged underground cable affected by carbonisation, which disrupted the power supply in the area.

He said extensive testing and fault-finding were required to locate the problem.

“The primary delay was locating the exact point of failure underground. Unlike overhead faults, underground cable faults are not visible and often require repeated testing, excavation and verification,” said Mangena.

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He added that Weltevreden Park’s dense and interconnected network further complicated fault tracing, leading to delays in repairs.

Mangena confirmed that electricity was restored on May 21 at about 19:50, after a 10-metre section of 11kV cable was replaced.