Residents in Parkmore said they were growing increasingly frustrated after waiting nearly a month for permanent repairs to an electrical fault that left infrastructure exposed in their neighbourhood and raised fears about public safety.

The issue began after a power outage affected several homes in the area, prompting technicians to investigate the underground electrical network. While electricity was eventually restored through a temporary solution, residents said the site remained open for weeks, with concerns about potential risks to children, pets and nearby properties.
Ward councillor Lynda Shackelford said the situation caused significant anxiety within the community. “This is not safe. We have children, animals, and families living here, and the infrastructure was left exposed without proper protection or warning signs,” Shackelford said.

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She added that residents repeatedly reported the issue and sought updates, but received limited communication about when permanent repairs would be completed. Resident Felix Antonysamy said the delays have become a pattern whenever faults occurred in the area. “Every time there is a problem, we wait days for technicians to arrive, and then we wait again for testing and repairs. In this case, the temporary fix was done, but the permanent repair took far too long,” Antonysamy said.

He added that residents logged multiple service requests during the period, but many requests were closed without visible repairs, creating confusion and frustration among affected households. The ongoing situation also raised concerns about the risk of electrocution or property damage, particularly during wet weather conditions.

In response to media inquiries, City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena confirmed that the outage was caused by a faulty 400-amp circuit breaker identified during technical assessments. “Our operational team promptly attended to the fault and implemented a temporary solution to restore power supply to affected customers,” Mangena said. He added that full electricity supply had since been successfully reinstated in the area. City Power attributed the delay in completing permanent repairs to the unavailability of replacement circuit breakers at the time, explaining that the required equipment had to be sourced before work could proceed.

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“A permanent replacement of the faulty 400A circuit breaker has already been logged and will be scheduled in line with operational plans,” Mangena said. The utility also clarified that service requests may be closed automatically when multiple reports are linked to the same outage, a process intended to streamline operations and avoid duplication. City Power said safety assessments were standard practice during maintenance work and confirmed that a planned maintenance team had been assigned to secure the site and ensure the infrastructure was safe.

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